20 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



chronicling. I remember eleven years ago seeing a colony of them in a 

 ditch on Donside, in Aberdeenshire. — Charles Garnett (Rownham House, 

 Clifton). 



CETACEA. 



Bottle-nosed Whale on Lincolnshire Coast. — A small Bottle-nosed 

 Whale, Hyperoodon rostratwn, came ashore at Skegness, on the Lincoln- 

 shire coast, on the 12th September last. Unfortunately I did not hear of 

 the occurrence uutil after the carcase had been buried. Subsequently, 

 however, I had it partially exhumed, and have preserved the skull. The 

 animal was said to measure 24 ft. in length, 10 ft. in girth, and to weigh 

 about four tons. — G. H. Caton Hatgh (Grainsby Hall, Great Grimsby). 



BIRDS. 



Experiences in breeding Parson Finches. — Respecting the breeding 

 of the Banded Grass Finch, Po'ephila cincta, generally known under the 

 dealer's name of " Parson Finch," Herr Wiener in Cassell's ' Cage Birds ' 

 (pp. 394, 395) writes very favourably ; he adds, " In the aviary it neither 

 disturbs the smallest African Finches, nor is it easily disturbed by less 

 well-behaved birds." Knowing that Herr Wiener had had considerable 

 experience in the breeding of small birds, I purchased a pair of "Parson 

 Finches" in 1891, and turned them in with my small finches in one of my 

 large aviaries. Tho result was that very shortly afterwards they built in 

 one of the nesting-boxes, and the hen then died egg-bound. I promptly 

 replaced this hen, with a like result. Shortly afterwards a hen of the 

 Green Avadavat, which was sitting on four eggs in one of the boxes, was so 

 constantly disturbed by the widowed cock Parsou Finch that she deserted 

 her nest. I now caught the offender and turned him into one of my cool 

 aviaries, purchased a mate for him, which nested in a buslr and died 

 egg-bound. About June last Mr. Abrahams kindly gave me a hen to 

 replace the one that had died, and as (in the meantime) I had acquired three 

 other cock birds, I purchased three more hens; so that I started fairly 

 with four pairs. Two of these hens went to nest, one building in a bush, 

 the other in a box, but both died egg-bound, leaving me with four cocks 

 and two hens. Now began a series of desperate encounters, in which one 

 cock was soon knocked on the head by the other three. The two remaiuing 

 hens now built, one of them in a bush, and again died egg-bound, the other in 

 a box ; the latter bird laid an egg and began to sit, but was constantly dis- 

 turbed by the widowed cock-birds, when both she and her mate immediately 

 pursued the intruders, one of which they killed. In due time two young 

 Parson Finches left the nest, and in two days the unpaired cock bird 

 killed them both. About a fortnight later, the hen went to nest again, and 



