NOTES AND QUERIES, 481 
note in the October issue of ‘ The Zoologist,’ there is at times an undoubted 
tendency on the part of sundry birds to appropriate for breeding purposes 
nests to which they have no rightful claim, though I do not say that such 
tendency is possessed by very many species, nor that it is illustrated with 
undue frequency. At p. 74 of ‘The Vertebrate Animals of Leicestershire 
and Rutland’ will be found a note having reference to a Spotted Flycatcher 
(Musctcapa grisola) which reared two successive broods in a Chaffinch’s 
(Fringilla celebs) nest at Ashlands, in this county, in the spring of 1883; 
while in the same work, at p. 65, I have given a brief account of a Blue 
Tit’s (Parus ceruleus) nest, found in June of the same year, which contained 
nine eggs, and was placed inside the ancient habitation of a Song Thrush 
(Turdus musicus). In the former instance the Spotted Flycatcher had 
merely usurped a forsaken nest, utilising it just as it came to hand. It 
was otherwise, however, in the case of the Blue Titmouse. 
Perhaps the most unusual incident of the kind that ever came under 
my notice was in connection with a brand-new nest built by a pair of Mag- 
pies (Pica rustica), and on which, just when it was ready for eggs, a pair of 
Kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) set envious eyes. By sheer good fortune I 
chanced to arrive on the scene one morning just as it was light, and was 
an eye-witness of a regular pitched battle between the opposing species. 
The Magpies were eventually worsted, and some ten days later I scaled the 
tree, a tall larch in a secluded spinney near to Skeffington, and possessed 
myself of a truly lovely clutch of eggs belonging to the victors. The incident 
is chiefly interesting from the fact that Kestrels are popularly supposed to 
appropriate—when they have need so to do—old nests only. 
May I be allowed to take this opportunity—of pen in hand—of 
informing many bird-loving correspondents who have written to me privately, 
as well as others who may be interested, that circumstances have necessi- 
tated my abandoning—at any rate for the present—all hope of publishing 
my ‘Original Sketches of British Birds’? The work, dealing with the 
experiences of half a life-time spent, I may say, uninterruptedly amidst 
birds in their native and varying haunts, and completed so long ago as 
1895, has been found altogether too costly to produce at the author’s 
private expense. I am emboldened to seek the privilege of giving the 
foregoing statement publicity through the medium of ‘ The Zoologist’ in 
the hope that any possible misunderstanding in the future will thereby be 
averted, seeing that extracts from the manuscript have already appeared, to 
wit, in the late Mr. F. Poynting’s beautiful work entitled ‘ Eggs of British 
Birds”; while the author, in publicly acknowledging his indebtedness, 
alluded to the ‘ Sketches ’ as on the eve of publication—a statement which 
I had reason at the time to believe was eminently justifiable—H. S. 
Davenport (Melton Mowbray). 
