2 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



when irreconcilable with my own, in a harsh or captious man- 

 ner, for I am by no means insensible of the heavy debt ornitholo- 

 gists of every degree owe to the writings of their predecessors ; 

 nevertheless, the truth is, or should be, the common object of all 

 who write sketches of bird-life. 



Many a time in the spring of the year, when I have been 

 waiting and watching in some plantation or wood in order to 

 watch a Sparrow-Hawk to its selected nest, old nests of years 

 gone by being in almost every tree, have I been indebted to the 

 far less harmonious, not to say angry and objurgatory, notes of 

 the Mistle-Thrush at a distance for warning to pull myself 

 together and be on the alert ; while a moment or so later, 

 swiftly and silently winging its flight amidst the trees, has the 

 special object of my ramble appeared, shooting up at last to its 

 perch upon a branch, and remaining perfectly motionless while 

 eventually affording me — provided my ambush had told no tales 

 — the identical piece of information I was in want of. In defence 

 of its nest the Mistle-Thrush is very courageous, but still more 

 so in defence of its young when on the point of quitting it ; I 

 have observed some battles royal on the part of this bird with 

 Kooks and Jackdaws, and, though successful on occasions in 

 fraudulently appropriating the eggs, I have never seen the two 

 species just mentioned actually capture the young. 



I have good reasons for considering this bird a very early 

 breeder. I have never detected its nest in abnormal situations, 

 nor have I come across abnormal eggs, either as regards colour, 

 shape, or size, as has been the case with sundry other birds ; but 

 a most singular instance respecting the nesting of this species 

 came under my notice in the spring of 1883. In May of that 

 year there were two Mistle-Thrushes' nests built low down in 

 ornamental yew trees, within half a dozen yards of each other, 

 opposite the hall-door of a country house in Leicestershire. 

 Both nests contained eggs when I found them, and in each 

 instance broods were successfully reared. Some few days after 

 all the young ones had flown, I was rather surprised to notice an 

 old bird again on one of the nests, and, on inspecting it, I was a 

 great deal more surprised to find that it contained no fewer than 

 nine eggs, five being of the type of those originally laid in it, and 

 the remaining four evidently the property of the Mistle-Thrush 



