NOTES AND QUERIES, 3l 



relative to bird song." I therefore think it worth while to record a few 

 facts relative to birds which I have at various times reared from the nest. 

 Of cock Nightingales which T reared there is no song to record : one of 

 them (proved after death to be a cock) never sang in my hearing ; but was 

 said to have sung splendidly at daybreak one morning when about a year 

 old. A Missel Thrush, which was undoubtedly a cock, invariably sang two 

 notes only, one high, the other low ; producing a most melancholy and 

 wearying repetition of sound from morning till night. A Blackbird reared 

 from the nest sang the first line of ' Villikins and his Dinah,' and another 

 sang the first line of a Psalm-tune. A cock Starling sang a jumble 

 of sounds mixed with the guttural call-note of the Missel Thrush. A 

 Sky Lark sang the usual wild song, but introduced into it the song of the 

 Persian Bulbul, which greatly improved it. Chaffinches, unless absolutely 

 isolated, readily pick up the wild song; but if kept in the same room with 

 Canaries, their song is lengthened (and thus improved), though not altered 

 in its character. With regard to Mr. Witchell's remarks anent my Red- 

 wings, they might be applicable if the birds had not begun to sing before 

 they had heard my Chaffinches. Even then the scale of the Redwing, 

 though reminding one of that of the Chaffinch, is very different in its tone 

 and rapidity of utterance.— -A. G. Butler (Beckenham). 



Persistent Brooding of the Ringed Plover.-— The following remark- 

 able instance of persistent brooding of a Ringed Plover, Mgialith hiaticula, 

 came under my observation during the past breeding season, at St. Anne's- 

 on-the-Sea, Lancashire : — On May 26th, whilst strolliug along the beach 

 on the look-out for nests, I observed a Ringed Plover running off in a 

 suspicious manner about twenty yards away on the shingle, and on coming to 

 the spot I found a nest containing four corks, — ordinary beer-bottle corks, 

 which lie about the beach in hundreds. Thinking this the trick of some 

 school-boy I threw the corks away, and gave the matter no further thought, 

 However, three or four days after, passing the same spot, I surprised the 

 bird again, sitting on three corks. I forget whether I threw these away or 

 not. On June 7th I again put the bird off the nest, which this time con- 

 tained four corks. These I threw away. On July 19th, six weeks later, 

 I visited the place again, and, to my surprise, put a bird off from a nest 

 about two yards from the site of the old one. This contained four corks, 

 one of which I threw away. The first nest was full of sand, and only 

 recognisable by the few fragments of shell which had originally lined it. 

 On July '^6th I surprised the bird again upon the nest, finding on this 

 occasion four corks and half a cork. I threw them all away but the half 

 cork, and lay down to watch. In a short time the bird came back and sat 

 on the nest. Some people passing disturbed it and it ran off, soon, however, 

 to come back. This happened several times, until a lady with some 



