7846 



Birds. 



eggs being unusually light-coloured, and exactly resembling each other, I conclude 

 that they were laid by one bird. The stalks of the nettles were so slight as to render 

 ihe manner in which the cuckoo's eggs had been placed in the nests a curious subject 

 of speculation. It would appear, however, that the process is not attended with much 

 difficulty, for had the parent birds in question preferred the nests of the sedge warbler 

 they would have found abundance of them in the same locality, and these nests being 

 placed on or close above the ground would have been easily accessible. I may mention 

 that the reed warbler was very plentiful in the gardens of Woicester College, Oxford, 

 where numerous nests were to be seen every year. These were built in various situa- 

 tions, but always resembled each other. I have seen them in the thorn hedge which 

 divides the canal from the gardens, and lilac, Seringa, arbor-vita?, box and laurel 

 bushes were also selected. — James Dalton ; Church Brovgliton. 



Gathering of Magpies. — I see in the ' Zoologist ' for December (Zool. 7817) one of 

 your correspondents writes respecting magpies, he having seen a flock of twenty, and 

 asks, " Is this a common occurrence? " I should say of very rare occurrence indeed, 

 at least in this neighbourhood, although a few years ago, one fine sunny afternoon in 

 October, I saw fifteen on the wing together: they rose in a very scattered manner 

 from a stubbie field on Throckley Fell, which is about four miles from this place. 

 This is the greatest number I ever saw together: they assembled on the tops of two 

 trees near at hand. — Thomas Thompson; Winlaton, December 7, 1861. 



Gathering of Magpies. — Mrs. Battersby expresses surprise (Zool. 7817) at having 

 seen an extraordinary gathering of magpies, some twenty or more, about 5 p.m., on 

 the 29th of October, and asks whether such gathering is a common occurrence? I 

 believe it is the usual habit of the magpie to congregate in flocks previously to their 

 going to roost. I speak particularly of what I see take place in this parish, where I 

 have repeatedly observed these birds to congregate about dusk in much greater num- 

 bers than flocks of twenty, previously to their coming into the woods to roost, on which 

 occasions they are frequently and readily shot by persons who secrete themselves for 

 that purpose under the trees the birds are about to occupy. I have often heard my 

 late old woodman quote a saying of his father, who in his day was a woodman also, 

 that " it was time to leave off work when the magpies come into the wood," i.e., about 

 dusk, which, as regards the hour of day, would very well correspond with Mrs. Bat- 

 tersby's 5 p. m., on the 29th of October. I well recollect to have once observed a really 

 very extraordinary gathering of magpies, not for the purpose of going to roost, for it 

 was in the morning before 11 o'clock. They occupied a considerable space in a high 

 hedge and the trees therein, parallel to the turnpike road on which I was riding, and 

 not more than fifty or sixty yards from it. Any attempt to count the birds would have 

 been quite hopeless, but I speak well within compass when I say there must have been 

 many hundreds. They kept hopping about and fluttering in the hedge, chattering 

 in a very restless manner. What they might be about besides I cannot pretend to say. 

 One might have thought it was the general assembly of all the magpies throughout 

 the country convened on some special and important business. I speak of what I wit- 

 nessed more than fifty years ago, but the fact is as vividly impressed on my memory 

 as if it had happened only yesterday, and I can still point out the exact spot where it 

 took place. I never saw the like before or since. — W. T.Bree; Allesley Rectory, 

 December 1 1, 1861. 



Great Spotted Woodpecker and Little Gull on the Norfolk Coast. — Since I sent off 

 roy notice about Norfolk rarities I have heard of more arrivals ou the coast of great 



