520 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



and the high road to Kensington. I never saw them except in the early 

 morning, and where they spent the remainder of the day I do not know. 

 On March 28th I noticed that a pair of Rooks had completed a nest in a 

 plane-tree in the Park close to the lodge at Prince of Wales's Gate. In the 

 same tree there were some remains of an old nest, which had, I think, been 

 occupied by a solitary pair some years ago. On April 6th a second nest 

 was begun close to the first, but so far I never saw more than a pair of 

 Rooks. Early in the morning of April 13th I saw five Rooks busy about 

 the nests, but the second nest was not completed. I was away from 

 London till April 26th ; when, on my return, I hastened to see how the 

 rookery was progressing, and found the original nest near the lodge was quite 

 demolished, but the second one was still remaining. Across the Kensington 

 Road, in the yard or garden of Kingston House, a large and flourishing 

 settlement had sprung into existence. There were seven nests in a large 

 elm-tree, and two in a plane-tree just beyond it. In Hyde Park there was 

 a new nest in an elm-tree opposite 18, Prince's Gate. The second nest near 

 the lodge was completed, and altogether there were ten nests, all occupied, 

 as far as one could discover from below. The birds were all about the nests, 

 and a most melodious chorus rejoiced ray ears. So far as I can discover, 

 there is no record of a rookery at Kingston House in former years. In May 

 I visited Connaught Square, and counted twelve nests in the plane-trees 

 there. The rookery in Connaught Square was deserted in the season of 

 1899. — Harold Russell (2, Temple Gardens, London). 



Number of Eggs in the Nest of Swift.— With reference to the note on 

 the number of Swift's eggs in last month's ■ Zoologist ' (ante, p. 479), I can 

 fully confirm Mr. Steele-Elliott's statement as to there being at times, and 

 by no means infrequently, three eggs in a nest of Cypselus apus. I had some 

 correspondence with Mr. Howard Saunders on the subject, and ray notes 

 appeared in my yearly natural history notes in ' The Zoologist ' for 1898. 



I have found three eggs in a Swift's nest that was isolated, some miles from 

 any other, so that there was no chance of two hens laying in the same nest. 



II Other places, other manners," you know. — Oxley Grabham (Thornton 

 Dale, Pickering). 



Cuckoo's Egg in Song-Thrush's Nest.— On July 1st of this year I 

 met a friend at Richmond who told me that a Song-Thrush had nested in a 

 bush just beside his garden-door, and laid four or five eggs, but that it had 

 deserted, and a Sparrow or some such bird had laid in the nest. I walked 

 home with him, and examined the nest. It was an ordinary Song-Thrush's 

 nest, built in a laurustinus-bush in the garden, a few feet away from the side- 

 door, and contained three eggs of the Thrush and one egg of a Cuckoo. 

 The nest and eggs were very wet and deserted. My friend told me it had 



