432 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



to the further inquiry of Mr. Wilson re Twite and its distribution, 

 wherein he states that " the bird breeds in most parts of the British 

 Islands where moors, mountains, and exposed heathy places are found, 

 being by no means confined to the northern parts." Now, it would be 

 most interesting to have further particulars of these " most parts of 

 the British Islands." In Wales I never was successful in finding it 

 nesting, although I am fully convinced I looked for it in what I deemed 

 very suitable places. I have it from very good authority that days 

 have been spent trying to locate the breeding of this species in North 

 Wales without success. It occurs there in winter fairly plentifully. 

 The Twite breeds on some of our hilly bracken-covered slopes in the 

 West Biding, as I have before stated, in little colonies ; yet on an 

 adjoining moor similarly placed, and to all appearances and aspects 

 equally suitable as a habitat of the Twite, not one can you find, so that 

 there is a something more than we reckon in the suitability of the 

 breeding-site. I can hardly think the Twite a common bird in all 

 — even hill or moorland — districts, or the collectors would not be so 

 keen on clutches. Our Bradford naturalists, I am pleased to say, are not 

 collectors, but many are the useless offers they get to exchange for the 

 eggs of this species. One day in 1904 my son and I found six nests — 

 four with six eggs, one with four, one with three ; two latter perhaps 

 not laid up. Every one of these nests had the conspicuous feather 

 (occasionally two) that we Bradfordians have noted so frequently when 

 photographing the nest, so that we expect always to find this odd adorn- 

 ment. I was mentioning this circumstance to our friend Mr. Forrest, 

 of Shrewsbury, whilst he was with us on a Twite-nesting expedition ; 

 we found No. 1, and after a careful examination could not find even 

 the odd feather ; again we find another — not a feather in it ; another 

 surprise ! This, too, when we had almost come to believe that, as far 

 as our own district colony was concerned, Twites never built with- 

 out this adornment ! Only a few days later, and every nest found con- 

 tained a feather (or feathers), mostly the hackle-feathers of the farmyard 

 rooster. I mention this circumstance more to point out how one can 

 get a fixed idea of the invariable rule of certain birds to use certain 

 building material, and yet all at once this habitual order is altered, and 

 in this case recontinued at a very little later period. — W. H. Parkin 

 (Studholme, Shipley, Yorks). 



Cuckoo and Twite. — Mr. Parkin stated (ante, p. 348) that the 

 bird-lovers in this district had paid great attention to Mr. W. Wilson's 

 former statement in ' The Zoologist,' that in the neighbourhood of 

 Aberdeen the Twite was always chosen as the foster-parent of the 



