154 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



two, right and left. One of the survivors was subsequently shot by some- 

 one else at Sonning, but lost ; and the fourth was seen later again, and 

 shot at unsuccessfully. From Capt. Clark Kennedy's 'Birds of Berks 

 and Bucks,' and from Mr. Aplin's recent ' Birds of Oxfordshire,' it will be 

 seen that the occurrence of this species is worthy of record. — A. H. Cocks 

 (Great Mario w). 



Destruction of Kingfishers. — On visiting a local birdstuffer's to iden- 

 tify the above-mentioned Smews, he showed me a pair of Kingfishers he 

 had just set up, telling me that he had had nearly a hundred sent him 

 during the past year, and remarked what a shame such a slaughter was. 

 Shooting on the river, or tow-path, is now prohibited by the Bye-laws of 

 the Thames Conservancy, and it would be interesting to learn how many 

 (if any) of these beautiful little birds had been killed legally.— A. H. Cocks 

 (Great Marlow). 



Great Grey Shrike at Spurn.-— With reference to Mr. Macpherson's 

 statement (p. 97), on my authority, that fourteen Great Grey Shrikes were 

 identified at Spurn in the autumn of 1876, twelve of the number having 

 been shot during October (Zool. 1877, p. 10), I wish to point out that this 

 is an error, the printer having substituted ten for two written by me. The 

 mistake was corrected in the following number of * The Zoologist ' (1877, 

 p. 59). — John Cordeaux (Great Cotes, Uiceby). 



Nesting of the Blue Robin in Confinement. — Instances of the 

 nesting of the common Blue-bird of N. America in aviaries are not un- 

 common ; but few persons take the trouble to watch the whole process 

 from the time when the cock bird first begins to feed the hen until the 

 young have moulted into their adult plumage, and therefore the records of 

 the nidification of this bird are — so far as I have been able to judge from 

 such as I have seen — imperfect. My Blue Robins made friends early in 

 June, the cock bird giving every insect he got hold of to the hen, to induce 

 her to receive his attentions ; the hen was very coy, and refused his 

 advances until about the end of the first fortnight ; the pairing was a noisy 

 affair, as the cock bird kept up an incessant shrieking noise, with his body 

 elongated and his beak turned up to the ceiling, for fully half an hour 

 beforehand and for quite ten minutes afterwards. On Sunday, the 15th of 

 the month, the hen spent the whole day in carrying up hay to a large deep 

 box nailed against the wall near to the ceiling, and on the surface of this 

 she formed a saucer-shaped depression, in which shortly afterwards she laid 

 three eggs : whilst sitting she was fed by the cock bird, but whenever he 

 gave her an insect she invariably left the nest to eat it. In thirteen days 

 the eggs hatched, and two days later two of the young birds were carried 

 out dead, and dropped upon the floor at some distance from the nest; the J 

 third bird was safely reared, and moulted into his adult plumage towards 



