NOTES AND QUERIES. 357 



one, notwithstanding its questionable morals. It has received and 

 is receiving more attention from naturalists than any other British 

 bird, and the true story of this most sphinx-like of all birds is emerg- 

 ing into clear outline. Much, however, still remains to be learned. 

 The actual, in relation to the possible facts of its economy, are still 

 scanty, and in approaching this subject one thing should be kept 

 in view, not to infer the general from the particular as has often 

 been done in the past. — E. P. Buttebfield. 



Singular Nest of Willow-Warbler. — In the 'Zoologist' for August, 

 p. 116, Mr. Warde Fowler mentions the nest of this species at some 

 distance from the ground. I have met with three instances — one 

 built in the upper angle of two rocks, one on the top of a whin bush, 

 and the last built in the boss of twigs which sometimes grows 

 around the boles of oak trees — trees whose growth has been arrested 

 by a more or less barren soil. — E. P. Buttebfield. 



I see in your August issue, p. 316, a note regarding the singular 

 position of a Willow- Wren's nest. In 1912 I found one in almost 

 a more remarkable place — in a small white cluster rose trained 

 over a wire archway in our garden, and about nine feet high, and on 

 the very top. The nest contained eggs. — C. F. Johnson (Brampton, 

 Cumberland.) 



Blue Variety of Cuckoo's Egg in Hedge-Sparrow's Nest. — It is 

 with unfeigned delight I record the finding in this district of the 

 blue type of egg of the Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus). It makes the 

 record all the more interesting, because the type of Cuckoo's egg 

 found in this district is fairly constant, and approximates in size and 

 colour to tha.t of the Sky-Lark. The circumstances under which it 

 was found were as follows : — I was on my way to Eldwick with my 

 wife in early July last on the footpath which skirts the south, that 

 is the Cottingley side, of Bingley Wood, when my wife called my 

 attention to a small bird which was threading its way through a 

 rose-bush a little away from the footpath, and on going to the bush 

 I found the bird, which was a Hedge- Sparrow, sitting on a nest, and 

 motioned for my wife to come and see the nest ; but before she had 

 arrived the bird had left the nest, which revealed four eggs. I took 

 the eggs out of the nest, and to my astonishment one of the eggs, by 

 its superior size, shape and texture, was undoubtedly the egg of a 

 Cuckoo. I have never previously found the egg of the Cuckoo 

 deposited in the nest of the Hedge- Sparrow, though I have carefully 

 searched for one for over forty years, and have known their nests 

 with fresh eggs close to a garden which Cuckoos have frequented in 



