NOTES AND QUERIES. 21 



I found her, one evening, crouched in a corner, egg-bound. I caged her, 

 and placed the cage on a rack over the kitchen fire ; in two days she laid 

 a half-shelled egg, and recovered her health and spirits. I now caught the 

 cock bird and placed my pair in a large breeding-cage, where they lived 

 happily for two or three weeks, when they built a nest, and the hen then again 

 got egg-bound and died. I wrote to Mr. Abrahams telling him of my failures, 

 and he was good enough to send me a pair to make a further experiment. 

 These have not yet attempted to go to nest ; but I Itope for good results this 

 time, for the following reasons : — The Banded Grass Finch is the most pug- 

 nacious little bird with which I have ever had to deal — as quarrelsome as an 

 English Sparrow. On this account he should not be associated, when 

 breeding, with other birds. Then the cock bird, in his fussiness over his hen, 

 when other birds are about, prevents her from eating the requisite amount 

 of lime to produce shell, often driving her away from the cuttle-fish bone 

 or egg-shells just as she is beginning to peck them. Lastly, in a mixed 

 aviary, these birds do not confine themselves strictly to their proper food, 

 but eat a certain quantity of more oily seeds intended for other species, and 

 thereby become too fat to breed safely. A fresh pair, isolated in a good- 

 sized breeding-cage, therefore has the best chance of succeeding iu rearing 

 a family. As regards the Parson Finch's amiability in the aviary, it is well 

 enough when not breeding; and though too inquisitive and meddlesome for 

 smaller birds, it is not absolutely vicious ; but when it chooses a nest-box 

 and has built in it, every intruder is knocked on the head ; in fact, my 

 Parson Finches killed at least one — and I believe several — Zebra Finches, 

 Amadina castanotis, which ventured into their home. I am unable, therefore, 

 on any point, to endorse Herr Wiener's observations respecting Poephila 

 cincta. — Arthur G. Butler (124, Beckenham Road, Beckenham). 



Macqueen's Bustard on the Yorkshire Coast. —It will interest your 

 readers to know that a fine specimen of Macqueen's Bustard, Otis 

 macqueeni, J. E. Gray, was shot near Marske, on the north-east coast of 

 Yorkshire, on the 5th October last. When first observed, it was walking 

 about in a large, bare pasture field near the edge of the sea-bank, about 

 100 ft. above the level of the sea. It was a very misty day, and the bird 

 when approached squatted like a game-bird, and seemed unwilling to rise. 

 It was evidently very tired, but on a nearer approach it rose straight up in 

 the air, and was easily shot. It was sent to Mr. Pearce Coupe to be 

 preserved, and he identified it as Macqueen's Bustard, and afterwards 

 ascertained it to be a male, which is fully proved by its size and haudsome 

 ruff. It has been purchased for, and is now in, the Museum at Newcastle- 

 on-Tyne. The bones of the body have also been preserved and presented 

 to the Museum by Mr. Coupe, who reports that he ate part of the flesh 

 and found it savoury, but somewhat tough. The bird is in haudsome 



