8632 



Birds. 



with three eggs. They were of a whitish blue, with a shade of darker colour of a 

 reddish tinge over the sides. Two \ears ago I took another with five, much of the 

 same appearance, but having none of the reddish colour. Both nests were in low 

 bushes, and about two and a half or three feet above the water of a marsh which these 

 bushes overhang. — /. A. Harvie Brown ; Dunipace House, Stirlingshire, May 6, 1863. 



Magpies Breeding in Confinement. — Some of your readers may have noticed my 

 account last year in the ' Zoologist ' (Zool. 8162) of my tame magpies. They will 

 be interested to hear that my four remaining birds have paired. Each pair has taken 

 possession of a lignum-vita tree at each end of my garden, from which they most 

 assiduously drive away rook, royston, jackdaw, or heron, whenever they approach. One 

 pair— those in the tree nearest my house — have built a large, deep nest, and the female 

 commenced sitting yesterday on five or six eggs. I believe such an occurrence is pre- 

 viously unrecorded. I will report further progress. — C. R. Bree; Colchester, April 

 22, 1863. 



The Cuckoo. — We have an old tale throughout Sussex that the cuckoo is turned 

 out on Heathfield (pronounced " Heffel '') fair day, which is on the 14th of April. This 

 year I distinctly saw and heard it on the 16th. — Thomas Thorncroft ; Brighton, April 

 21, 1863. 



[Some of these country sayings are close approximations to the truth, and are 

 worthy of great respect. I have been astonished at the number of communications 

 that have reached me this year as to the arrival of the cuckoo in February and March, 

 many of them backed by the authority of country gentlemen, clergymen and game- 

 keepers, yet, T regret to say, totally unworthy of credit. I fear that a willingness to 

 believe in unusual occurrences is a part of the English character. In these instances 

 the bird seen must have been one of our smaller hawks ; the cry of " cuckoo " must 

 have emanated from some juvenile adept in the mimetic art. — Edward Newrnari]. 



Deposition of Eggs by the Cuckoo. — An anecdote was lately furnished me in cor- 

 roboration of the above, while on a recent visit to Dover, by Mr. C. G. Gordon, the 

 able and enterprising attendant at the Museum there. He clearly remembers that a 

 friend of his, thirty years ago, when walking in the park at W.ildershare, the seat of 

 the Earl of Guildford, observed a cuckoo sitting on the ground in a ride under the 

 lime trees along the edge of the wood : he knocked it over with a stick, and in 

 squeezing it by the throat to expedite its dying struggles, the soft and fluid yolk of an 

 egg, flowing freely forth from the base of the mandibles, caused him to exclaim, 

 " Why, he's got an egg in his mouth ! " I have no doubt that similar instances of 

 this habit of the cuckoo have given rise to the prevailing notion that it sucks the eggs 

 of other birds. — Arthur W. Crichton ; 11, Eaton Place, Belgruve Square, April 13. 



On the Diving of the Sandpiper. — Captain Hadfield, in speaking of the diving of 

 the sandpiper for food (Zool. 8524), says : — " Undoubtedly it could, but whether it 

 would, or rather has occasion to do so, is the question. That it is not the sandpiper's 

 usual habit to seek for food at the bottom of streams or pools, there can be little 

 reason to doubt ; and as to its taking pleasure in it, I am inclined to believe that it 

 only dives when winged and pursued, having no other way of escape." The sand- 

 piper, when frcq'ienting fresh water, feeds on very similar food to the dipper, viz., 

 shell-fish, water insects and their larvie, &c, as I have proved from dissection. Now, 

 as this kind of food lies on the bottom, and as the dipper has occasion to dive, or at 

 all events does so, I do not think it at all strange that the sandpiper should also find 

 it necessary to seek for food by diving, especially whea ;coupled with the fact of its 



