416 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



12th. — Sharp night frosts (as low as 26° at four feet from the 

 ground) and cold winds set in to-day, and, lasting about a fort- 

 night, completely ruined the promise of the fairest and earliest 

 spring I ever knew. The damage done was very great on 

 account of the forward state of vegetation, the flow of sap being 

 suddenly checked and buds and tender foliage shrivelled up. 

 Early breeding birds and delicate migrants also suffered. 



14th.— Put a Crow off her well-concealed nest built against 

 the main trunk of an elm where two boughs sprout out, and 

 quite invisible at a little distance. From this nest four partly 

 incubated eggs were taken on the 18th. I may mention here 

 that I am inclined to think the same pair of Crows bred in the 

 same group of trees the following spring ; for on the 19th April, 

 1904, I found a well-hidden nest in the main fork of an elm a 

 few yards from the nest-tree of 1903, and, on sending the boy up 

 on the 21st, he brought down three partly incubated eggs, which 

 closely resemble those of the previous year. As the eggs are 

 peculiar, of a long green type (unlike any others that I have 

 obtained in this locality), I feel pretty sure that they were laid 

 by the same bird. In both years other Crows were breeding 

 only a short distance away. I had the pleasure of showing 

 Mr. J. Whitaker the -hidden nest of 1904, and he was much 

 interested in it. These concealed nests (of which I have seen 

 a good many others) are rather curious, for Crows here more 

 commonly build their nests in conspicuous places. A possible 

 explanation of these particular cases may be that the nest-trees 

 are close to a much-frequented cattle-hovel and hay-rickyard, 

 where a few fowls are sometimes kept, and the birds had especial 

 reasons for keeping their presence quiet. When Crows nest in 

 a tall elm they usually build high up among the top branches, 

 and the nest is as conspicuous as a Book's, although never, I 

 think, quite so near the top or among such small branchlets as 

 Eooks affect. A fair-sized fork, or a fork in the main trunk in 

 an elm, or a drawn-up spinney oak, is often chosen ; but in most 

 cases the nest is conspicuous. In spreading hedgerow or solitary 

 oaks the nest is often on a partly horizontal limb where some 

 branchlets break out, at some distance from the trunk, and I 

 once saw one on a thin almost bare bough of an oak which grew 

 nearly horizontally for a space and then turned straight up, and 



