426 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



and one egg ; this constant interference causing them to again forsake. In 

 this instance incubation had lasted at least twelve days. — J. Steele- 

 Elltott (Clent, Worcestershire). 



Cuckoo in the Shetlands. — On Aug. 8th I caught a young fully-fledged 

 Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) on the lawn in front of this house, where it was 

 feeding. The bird was very tame (perhaps it knew that the Wild Birds 

 Protection Act is in force in Shetland until the end of this month!) I 

 have seen and heard the Cuckoo in and about the shrubbery many times 

 during the past two months. — T. Edmondston Saxby (Halligarth, Unst, 

 Shetland). 



Common Buzzard (Buteo vulgaris) shot in Hertfordshire.— I regret 

 that I have previously omitted to record the shooting of a Common Buzzard 

 in Hertfordshire on Jan. 27th last. Tt was a male bird, and measured three 

 feet from tip to tip, wing measurement, and turned the scale at two ounces 

 short of two pounds. Mr. Spary, the local taxidermist, remarked to me 

 that the bird was as fat as butter, and had probably been feasting in some 

 rich game-preserves. He told me also that all the Hawks and Owls he had 

 had through his hands were never very fat, and that ,the case of the Buzzard 

 under notice was a singular exception. 1 have promised not to divulge the 

 exact locality where the bird was shot, as the keeper is afraid of " marching 

 orders " should it reach the ears of his employer. — W. Percival Westell 

 (5, Glenferrie Road, St. Albans, Herts). 



Nesting Habits of the Sparrow-Hawk.— Jn treating of an issue in 

 this connection [ante, p. 381), Mr. A. H. Meiklejohn has awakened in me a 

 responsive chord. No bird have I followed and studied more iudustriously 

 in the breeding season than Accipiter nisus. Perhaps, then, as I aspire to 

 the credit of knowing something about the species in question, a corner may 

 be found for this communication, though I would wish, quite modestly, to 

 say at the outset that Mr. Meiklejohn is mistaken in fancying that attention 

 has never yet been called in print to the particular traits in the Sparrow- 

 Hawk's economy so recently adverted to by him. Some four years ago a 

 monthly publication, 'The Ornithologist' by name, entered on a somewhat 

 precarious and certainly brief existence, and in its pages a very animated 

 discussion was maintained for upwards of six months concerning the 

 nesting economy of the Sparrow-Hawk. I should like to be allowed to 

 reproduce in these columns the gist of what I wrote in the May number of 

 that magazine for 1896, as I have had no reason subsequently to alter or 

 even modify the views then expressed. They were the outcome of many 

 years' assiduous and unrelenting study of Sparrow-Hawks in their woodland 

 haunts during the breeding season, and should go to prove that the habit to 

 which Mr. Meiklejohn specifically refers has not always hitherto been 



