NOTES AND QUERIES. 279 



The Jay (Garrulus glandarius) in London. — On the 17th June 

 I saw two Jays in a garden in West Kensington. My house is in a 

 road which forms one side of a quadrangle with three other roads. All 

 the houses in this quadrangle are back to back, and each house has a 

 small walled-in garden, with trees in most of them. On the morning 

 of the above date I was seated reading at the window overlooking the 

 garden, when my attention was attracted by seeing two largish birds 

 fly into a tree in the garden of the next house, and immediately after- 

 wards I heard and recognized the harsh alarm-note of the Jay. Going 

 into the balcony, and looking carefully, I made out the two birds. 

 They were Jays. They were moving about restlessly in the tree, and 

 more than once uttered their loud harsh call. I should think I had 

 them under observation for three or four minutes, when first one, then 

 the other rose and flew over the houses, taking a south-westerly 

 direction. It seems to me strange that so very shy a bird as a Jay 

 should be found alighting in a London garden. What wild Jays — for 

 these looked like wild birds, and not escaped prisoners — were doing in 

 the vicinity of London and bricks and mortar puzzles me. — C. T. 

 Bingham (West Kensington). 



Eggs of the Cuckoo in Nests of the Hawfinch. — On an evening 

 near the end of May, while engaged in a natural history ramble, a set 

 of eggs were shown to me by a youth. They were a clutch of five 

 eggs of the Hawfinch (Coccothraustes vulgaris), with the egg of a Cuckoo 

 Guculus canorus). As I had never previously found this combination, 

 I was somewhat dubious as to its genuineness ; but, after a few 

 questions had been asked and answered in a straightforward way, I 

 felt assured on the point, and determined to make a careful and 

 systematic search in the neighbourhood. The result of this was that 

 within a radius of half a mile from the spot two other sets of eggs of 

 the Hawfinch, each with a Cuckoo's egg, were discovered, and a few 

 days later another was found. The Cuckoo eggs were all after the 

 same type, and closely resembled each other in size and colour, and 

 the nests in which they were found were all placed in very similar 

 situations. In quoting this occurrence, may I state that during an 

 experience of upwards of thirty years' active field-work, in the study 

 of ornithology, I have never before found a Cuckoo choosing the Haw- 

 finch as foster-parent for its young. — John Palmer (Ludlow). 



Moor-hen breeding in a Rook's Nest. — At a large rookery near 

 here some of the Eooks have again built in the tall Portugal laurels. 

 Just before Rook-shooting commenced, I visited the spot in company 

 with Mr. Michael J. Nicoll. We counted no fewer than seven nests in 



