106 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



AVES. 



Robin in Shetland. — A specimen of Erithacus ruhecula, which had 

 been picked up dead on Mainland, Shetlind, nbout a fortnight previously, 

 was sent to me for identification on Feb. 13th, lUOl, According lo Saxby, 

 the Robin is very rarely seen in the Shetlands ; and the fact that it was 

 unknown to my correspondent, who is well acquainted with the ordinary 

 birds of the islands, bears this out. The specimen sent to me is probably a 

 bird of the previous spring. The red of the throat and breast is bright, 

 but rather pale, and of a yellowish shade. — 0. V. Aplin (Bloxham, Oxon). 



Blackcap Singing in February. — On Feb. 15th, at 8.35 a.m., as I was 

 passing a small clump of bu&hes in a Clifton garden, my attention was 

 attracted by an unexpected song ; and in the bush I saw a Blackcap 

 {Sylvia atricapilla) singing softly, as though to himself. He flew across 

 the road when he saw me standing close to him, but at nine o'clock I found 

 him singing again in the same place. It was a cold frosty morning, but 

 the sun was coming out biightly. Possibly Blackcaps not infrequently 

 winter in this neighbourhood ; I was able to report one last year, on March 

 12th (vol. iv. p. 187). — Heebert C. Playne (Clifton College). 



Marsh-Warbler at Bath. — I do not know if attention has been called 

 previously to the probability that the Marsh-Warbler {Acrocephalus palus- 

 tris) was in the habit of breeding at Bath (where several nests have been 

 discovered more recently) nearly fifty years ago. Hewitson, in the third 

 edition of his book (' Coloured Illustrations of the Eggs of British Birds '), 

 which was issued in the years 1853-1856, in the article on the Reed- 

 Warbler, writes : — " .... until the last summer, during which Mr. Brown, 

 a birdstuffer in Bath, procured for me several nests from gardens in that 

 city, lying near the river. These were placed indiscriminately in any 

 shrub most conveniently situated for the purpose ; one was in a lilac, 

 another in a laurustinus ; and since in such a position the precaution was 

 unnecessary [this is a mistaken idea, if the nests were Marsh- Warblers'], 

 they were not of the usual depth which commonly characterizes the nests 

 of this species. They were not deeper than the nests of the Sedge- 

 Warbler, and were composed almost entirely of grass, with bits of moss 

 bound together with wool and spiders' webs, finer towards the inside ; in 



