NOTES AND QUERIES. 167 



Strange Discovery of a Tit's Nest. — On Nov. 12th, 1896, the sawyers 

 at the wood-yard of Messrs. S. Allsopp & Sons were engaged in cutting up 

 into planks a very fine broad-leaved elm-tree, the trunk of which was five 

 feet in diameter at the base. The tree had been felled in front of Kiulet 

 Hall, near Highley, Shropshire. Judging from the size, the tree must 

 have been from two to three centuries old. About seventeen feet from the 

 base they found a small cavity containing three nails and also a perfectly- 

 formed bird's nest; on this was a perfect egg, which was unfortunately 

 broken during the manipulations. But on removal of the upper layers 

 another nest was found, containing four eggs in a fair state of preservation. 

 From their size they were probably laid by a Blue Tit, and the markings 

 are quite plain, although somewhat faded. Judging from the disposition of 

 the woody fibres, I think that the original aperture must have been closed by 

 the growth of a large branch which finally coalesced with the main trunk, 

 and so cut off all communication with the outside. I am indebted to the 

 courtesy of Mr. Maxwell Tod, the secretary of the Company, for the oppor- 

 tunity of recording these facts. — Philip B. Mason (Burton-on-Trent). 



Yellow Wagtail in Argyllshire. —I beg to record the occurrence last 

 spring (March and April, 1896) of a solitary specimen of the Yellow 

 Wagtail, Motacilla rati, about a mile from Oban, Argyllshire, N.B. It 

 alighted on a stone bridge within a yard of where I was standing, enabling 

 me to quietly and minutely examine and determine the species certainly to 

 my satisfaction. I note Messrs. J. A. Harvie Brown and T. E. Buckley, in 

 their ' Fauna of Argyllshire and the Inner Hebrides,' remark the scarcity of 

 the bird thereabouts, so send you this account of ray own personal obser- 

 vation. — Robert Robinson Davison (3, Waterloo Avenue, North Strand, 

 Dublin). 



The Ostrich. — In an important article of last month's 'Zoologist,' 

 Mr. Schreiner calls attention to a great many fallacies which have hitherto 

 been generally accepted as facts. The German naturalist Brehm, several 

 years ago, in an essay entitled ' The Steppes of Inner Africa,' wrote a 

 description of the habits of the Ostrich which agrees in several points 

 with Mr. Scbreiner's views, as, for instance, in the question of polygamy 

 or monogamy ; but in a quotation added by the editor to the English edition, 

 which appeared last year, are the following remarks ; and I think they are 

 characteristic of the misconceptions existing in scientific circles as to the 

 habits of this bird:—" Ostriches, though sometimes assembling in troops 

 of thirty to fifty, commonly live in companies of four or five — one cock and 

 the rest hens. This is especially true at the breeding season. All the 

 hens lay together ; the cock broods during the night ; the hens take turns 

 during the day, more it would seem to guard their common treasure from 



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