Birds. 



8631 



hollow hole with the saw, and not till I began sawing and sending down hits of wood did 

 she think proper to beat a retreat. She batched the six remaining eggs buried in the 

 chips and sawdust. I have often known eggs disappear very unaccountably. I have 

 known thrush's and blackbird's eggs disappear from a nest in a night, when no human 

 intruder has been near. I suppose these birds cannot remove their own eggs. I have 

 found shells in nests, in places where no rats, weasels, polecats, snakes, magpies or 

 crows frequented. Do birds sometimes eat their own eggs, or is the cuckoo the pil- 

 ferer? The boys and keepers about here convict the cuckoo, and I am strongly 

 inclined to agree with them. I do not remember to have found many shells before 

 the arrival of the cuckoo. A correspondent of the 'Zoologist' (Zool. 8099) classes 

 mice among the egg-destroyers ; but is this an admitted and known fact? I should 

 like to see a list of all the animals that destroy British birds' eggs, including of course 

 birds; it would perhaps throw some light on the causes of the decrease of species. 

 This April I found a brood of young robins starved to death, and the nest blown full 

 of dead holly-leaves. The nest was pitched at the foot of a holly-bush on the north 

 side, and a biting nonh wind had prevailed. — G. Roberts ; Lofthouse, Wakefield, 

 May 8, 1863. 



Honey Buzzard (Falco apivorus) in Shetland. — I have lately obtained a very per- 

 fect specimen of the above, which was shot in the north of this island last winter. It 

 appears to be an adult male, but only measures twenty-two inches in length. — Henry 

 L. Saxby ; Baltasound, Shetland, April 15, 1863. 



Food of the Dipper (Cinclus aquaticus). — While this matter is still occupying so 

 much of the attention of naturalists I beg to offer such small amount of evidence as I 

 have been enabled to collect. During my residence in North Wales, some years ago, 

 I paid particular attention to the habits of the dipper, chiefly with a view to determine 

 the nature of its food. The gamekeepers in the neighbourhood being most determined 

 in their efforts to exterminate this much-persecuted little bird, I was afforded an almost 

 unlimited supply of specimens, and, although two-thirds at least of the numerous 

 victims were examined by me, in not one solitary instance could even a trace of salmon 

 ova be found in the stomach, although the spawning season was the very time at which 

 the slaughter was most industriously carried on. In one instance only could ova of 

 any kind offish be detected, and these I have still preserved in spirit; certainly they 

 do not belong either to salmon or to trout. The stomachs almost invariably contained 

 water iusects, but upon two occasions, much to my surprise, small fragments of trout 

 in addition. I once saw my father shoot a dipper which, as it fell, dropped a living 

 trout three inches in length. This also is preserved, and upon each side the deep mark 

 caused by the bird's bill can very distinctly be seen. Among my notes for the same 

 year in which this occurred I made the following entry. " Feb. 16th. This afternoon 

 I saw three water ouzels at one time in the river, a little below the bridge. Two of 

 them were feeding, and in a short time one appeared above the surface with a fish in 

 its bill almost as long as itself. This was brought ashore, and all three birds, after 

 having pecked at it for some time, left it. In the evening I saw them again at the 

 same fish." Having in the first instance offered some exculpatory evidence with 

 regard to the first and most serious charge, yet, while proving the culprit to be guilty 

 of a minor offence, I most earnestly beg to add a strong " recommendation to mercy," 

 upon the ground of the extreme rarity of that offence. — Id. 



Blue Variety of Chaffinch's Eyg. — At Zool. 8091 and again at Zool. 8035 were 

 some remarks on the above colour of the chaffinch's egg. The other day I took a nest 



