382 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



nesting at the same time, I gave her two of the Twites' eggs, making up the 

 number for each with infertile eggs: both birds hatched on the same day; 

 the two in the Redpoll's nest perished at once, though she is a good feeder, 

 and has reared two broods of her own this season. The Twite successfully 

 reared hers, and they left the nest on July 19th, and are now very fine birds 

 and normally coloured. Young Twites are not nearly so precocious as 

 Redpolls; they were a long time before they attempted to peck for them- 

 selves, and even now (August) clamour to the old ones for food, whereas 

 I have seen young Redpolls, a week after leaving the nest, shell hard canary 

 seed. My birds have no soft food given them, but as much of the flowering 

 top of the dwarf grass, dandelion, and hardhead tops, thistle, plantain, &c, 

 as they wish, and as many aphides off rose, apple, or plum trees as I can 

 at the time obtain ; infested branches being put in the aviary for the birds 

 to peck them off. The latter, I consider, are very essential for the successful 

 rearing of Finches in confinement, especially for the first few days after 

 they are hatched. — G. C. Swailes. 



A Crane traced from itS'Nest to its Winter Quarters. — According to 

 the Cairo correspondent of * The Times,' Slatin, the recently escaped 

 prisoner of the Khalifa, relate^ the following interesting occurrence. In 

 December, 1892, the Khalifa handed him a small metal capsule, ordering 

 him to open it and explain what it meant. It contained two small slips 

 of paper each about the size of a visiting card, with an inscription in 

 German, French, and English, stating that the capsule was attached to 

 the neck of a Craue bred on the estate of Herr Falz-Fein, at Tskanea 

 Nova, in the province of Taurida, South Russia (just north of the Crimea), 

 who had released the bird, and requested any future captor to communicate 

 to him particulars of date and place. Slatin, who speaks only from 

 memory, for he was not allowed to retain or even copy the writing (the 

 possession of any European writing being a punishable offence), thinks 

 that the date of the bird's release was June or July, 1892. It was killed 

 about November of that year, in Nubia, at Darel Shaigia, and the capsule 

 was sent to Younes, the Emir of Dongola, who forwarded it by special 

 messenger to the Khalifa, at Omdurman, a total journeying of about 800 

 miles by camels. Slatin has written to Herr Falz-Fein, informing him of 

 the incident, the remarkable point of which is, that the paper reached the 

 only man in the entire Soudan who could comply with the wish of the 

 sender of the message. 



Honey Buzzard Nesting in Herefordshire. — It may be of interest to 

 note that during the past summer a pair of Honey Buzzards attempted to 

 establish themselves in Bishopswood, near Ross, Hereford, bnt unfor- 

 tunately, through the ignorance of a keeper, both birds were shot and their 

 two eggs taken. Through the kindness of Mr. W. C. Ashdown, the taxidermist 



