1212 Birds. 



Abbey resound with its beautiful melody every night for a fortnight last May. It cer- 

 tainly is a singular fact, if it does not step over into Glamorganshire or Brecknock- 

 shire ; at all events its appearance in Monmouthshire is sufficient to account for its 

 Welsh synonyme, which the author of the article ' Nightingale ' in the ' Penny Cyco- 

 paedia ' is at a loss to explain. — C. R. Bree; Stowmarket. 



Occurrence of the Great Belted Kingfisher in Ireland. — I am indebted to Mr. Ball, 

 of Dublin, for the information that a specimen of the Great Belted Kingfisher ( Alee do 

 Alcyon Linn), has been shot at Annsbrook, in the county Meath. Another specimen 

 of this American bird was seen by Mr. Latouche's gamekeeper at Luggelaw, I shall 

 endeavour to give a figure and full description as soon as practicable. — Edward 

 Newman. 



Nest and Eggs of Savi's Warbler. — I have been favoured by my correspondent, 

 Mr. Bond with the following description of the nest and eggs of Savi's Warbler, 

 Salicaria luscinioides of Temminck and Gould. At the date of the publication of Mr. 

 Yarrell's History of our British Birds, the particulars annexed were unknown. 

 Three nests were found in the summer at Backsbite, in the parish of Milton, between 

 three and four miles north of Cambridge. These nests, in each instance, were on the 

 ground. They are cup-shaped, compactly formed of the long narrow leaves of the 

 common reed, ( Arundo phragmitis) wound round and interlaced, but without any 

 other lining. The eggs measure ten lines in length, by seven and a half lines 

 in breadth ; of a whitish ground colour, covered nearly all over with minute specks of 

 two colours, one set being of a pale red, the other of light ash gray : in some of 

 the eggs the pale red spots are the most conspicuous, and these resemble the eggs of 

 the grasshopper warbler, but are rather larger; in others the gray specks are pre- 

 dominant, and these resemble the eggs of the Dartford Warbler. — Edward Newman. 



Occurrence of the Oyster Catcher inland. — On the 23rd of March, 1845, I shot the 

 Oyster Catcher (Hcematopus ostralegus), in the neighbourhood of Guildford on the 

 banks of the River Wey. — F. A. Chennell ; Stoke, near Guildford, November 

 llth, 1845. 



Incubation of the Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula). — I have often heard and 

 read of this bird exposing its eggs to the sun. I beg leave to offer the result of my 

 observations on this subject. In the spring of 1844, while staying on the Sussex 

 coast I made search for the nest of this bird, I found two with four eggs in each and 

 visited them about noon every day for nearly a week, I invariably found the bird on the 

 nest although the weather was very hot at the time. The parent bird when disturbed 

 on the nest, creeps along the shingle to the water's edge and then Hies a short distance 

 uttering its well-known cry. The nest of this bird is merely a hole scratched in the 

 beach, and is lined with pieces of the smallest shingle. — F. A. Chennell, Stoke, near 

 Guildford, November Xlth, 1845. 



Anecdote of Herons fighting. — A curious occurrence happened at Roydon in this 

 county, which perhaps you may think worthy of record in * The Zoologist.' A boy 

 observed two herons on the ground fighting with one another, he ran up and one flew 

 away apparently unhurt, the other lay still and allowed the boy to pick it up, he took 

 it to the gentleman who informed me of the circumstance, and the bird was examined 

 to see what injury it had received: it was apparently not much the worse and was 

 placed on the lawn to see if it had recovered, which it proved beyond doubt by setting 

 all sail and making olf. It is curious that so shy a bird as the heron should 

 have allowed a lad to pick it up unless seriously wounded, and the fact of combats 



