398 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



A VE S. 



Fieldfare in Captivity. — About a year ago a Fieldfare came into 

 my possession which had been caught by a friend of mine, the bird 

 having evidently flown against the telegraph wires beneath which it 

 was caught, and brought to me for identification. I kept it for some 

 time, and had no difficulty in providing suitable food until well into 

 December. It was very fond of elderberries, of which there was a 

 plentiful supply until well into November, but haws were a complete 

 failure in this district last year, and hips did not appeal to its taste. 

 It would eat currants but was not very fond of them. When the 

 supply of berries was exhausted I was agreeably surprised to find it 

 would eat apples when cut into small pieces. Blackberries it would 

 oat, but was not at all fond of this fruit, as I expected it would be, 

 but still I was finding this fruit up to the first week in December. I 

 used to vary its diet occasionally by finding worms in the garden. It 

 would also eat dates, and I attribute its death to one of my children 

 having given this food, and found that it bad swallowed the fruit 

 without rejecting the stones. Its gizzard distended previous to its 

 sudden death to an extraordinary degree. It is often asserted that 

 this species sleeps on the ground, but from the first day of its 

 captivity my bird when retiring for the night manifested a strong 

 desire to perch. — E. P. Buttekfield. 



Relative Abundance of the Garden-Warbler and Blackcap. — Re- 

 ferring to the correspondence under this head in the current volume 

 of the ' Zoologist,' from the limited reply to my enquiries, it would 

 be hard to say which of the above species was the more common. 

 Speaking generally, I think it will be found that the Garden-Warbler 

 in the northern portions of England is the commoner species, but in 

 the southern portions, particularly the western side, the Blackcap 

 may be the dominant species ; but before any definite statement can 

 be formulated as to the exact status of these two species, more 

 observations from different districts should be sent in. This distri- 



