336 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



becomes deeply tinted with orange at the following moult. I regret that, 

 owing to the death of the bird with which I experimented at this stage, I 

 am uuable to say positively that perseverance in the same treatment would 

 have completely restored the wild plumage ; but it is quite reasonable to 

 suppose that such would have been the case. I should judge that the 

 gradual and uniform change of colouring from red to orange in Mr. 

 Renshaw's bird was due to his giving it abundance of insect-food ; similarly 

 treated in a large sunny open-air aviary, it is probable that the typical 

 colouring would have been retained. — A. G. Bdtler (124, Beckenham 

 Road, Beckenham, Kent). 



Nest of the Reed Bunting. — I found a nest of this species on the 2nd 

 of this month (June) built in a somewhat unusual position. It was at the 

 extreme edge of an osier-bed skirting a small tributary of the river Suir. 

 The nest was built at the junction of two branches of willow, crossing each 

 other, and was perfectly suspended, and overhung the water, from which it 

 was distant 5£ ft. I watched the hen for some time. She uttered occa- 

 sionally a single note, and behaved quite differently to a pair of Lesser 

 Redpolls which had a nest close by, and which were very noisy and excited. 

 There were four young birds in the nest. They were apparently four or 

 five days old, and the hen had her mouth full of small pieces of willow- 

 leaves, which 1 saw her gather, evidently for the young. It was a very 

 untidy nest, composed of moss and catkins of willow roughly put together. 

 — William W. Flemyng (Coolfin, Portlaw, Co. Waterford). 



Grey Wagtail Nesting in Lincolnshire.— When recording this in the 

 last number of ' The Zoologist,' I forgot to mention that the nest was lined 

 exclusively with white cow-hair, a material which appears to be invariably 

 used by the Grey Wagtail. Also that within an hour of the young leaving 

 the nest the old birds had succeeded in getting them to the neaiest running 

 water, about three hundred yards from their nesting place. — John 

 Cordeaux (Great Cotes House, Lincoln). 



Nesting of the Grey Wagtail in Leicestershire. — Mr. John Cordeaux 

 always wields an attractive pen, but, so far as I personally am concerned, 

 exceptional interest attaches to his note on the breeding of the Grey Wagtail 

 in Lincolnshire — the first recorded instance for that county — as detailed in 

 the June issue of 'The Zoologist.' Mr. Cordeaux, apart from the intriusic 

 interest of his narrative, has eloquently demonstrated the unwisdom of 

 placing too much reliance on preconceived ideas ; in other words, the 

 mistake of assuming that because such and such a bird has never been 

 known to breed in such and such a county, it is next door to impossible 

 for it ever to do so. In 'The Vertebrate Animals of Leicestershire and 



