Birds. 



6603 



numerous visitant to our coast in spring; nor do I think that, in this case, the 

 apparent increase in number can he attributed to their being more observed and 

 recorded now than formerly. No bird has, I believe, from its striking and beautiful 

 plumage, been at all times more persecuted or more faithfully chronicled amongst the 

 "rare bird" paragraphs of local journals than the hoopoe, and deeply to be regretted 

 is that merciless slaughter which deprives us, in all probability, of a willing resident 

 during the breeding season. To what cause may be assigned the unprecedented 

 number that have during this spring appeared on our eastern coasts I am at a loss to 

 determine, but between the 12lh of April and the second week in May, six or seven 

 fine specimens were killed in various parts of Norfolk, and others seen. A still larger 

 number, however, appeared on the Suffolk coast, no less than seventeen examples 

 having been killed, to my knowledge, of which thirteen were shot on the Warren and 

 Denes, at Lowestoft, between the 28th of April and the 5th of May. Some of these 

 birds were in most splendid plumage, from the depth and purity of the varied 

 markings on the back and wings. The ring ouzels, generally arriving about the same 

 time as the hoopoes, have also been extraordinarily plentiful this year, so much so as to 

 become quite a drug in the bird market, and dealers were obliged to refuse, in some 

 cases, to purchase more specimens. I have seen upwards of twenty of these birds, 

 both adult and immature, shot in Norfolk between the beginniug of April and the 

 first week in May, most of them obtained within a mile or two of this city. Probably 

 as many more were shot, but, not having been preserved, have escaped my notice. — Id. 



Occurrence of the Hoopoe near Barnstaple. — A hoopoe was shot near Barnstaple a 

 few days after Easter. Many were killed about the same period in the neighbourhood 

 of Oxford. — Murray A. Mathews; Merton College, Oxford, June 8, 1859. 



A Robin's Nest in a Gardener's Pouch. — Most of our more familiar birds are known, 

 I believe, occasionally to choose strange places for their nests, and therefore I do not 

 give the following fact as anything very extraordinary, but only as another pleasing 

 instance of the confidence which, through kind treatment, animals may be brought to 

 repose in man. In the present case the bird was a robin, and the place chosen for its 

 nest a gardener's leather pruning-pouch, which he had left for some time hung up in 

 a shed attached to the garden in which he was employed. He occasionally took his 

 meals in this shed, and observing that the robin was not disturbed by his presence, he 

 placed crumbs of bread near the nest, which the robin took, and by degrees she 

 allowed him to approach nearer and nearer, until at length she took the crumbs out of 

 his hand whilst sitting on her eggs. But before the eggs were hatched the gardener 

 required his pouch, in order to pursue his work, though of course he could not think of 

 taking possession without furnishing robin with another equally comfortable home. 

 This he did by ingeniously fashioning an old gaiter into a receptacle as near as pos- 

 sible like the pouch, and into it he carefully transferred the nest and eggs ; and such 

 was the good understanding established between the parties, that this ejectment did 

 not in any way disturb the existing amicable relations. The robin sat on, and in due 

 time the young birds were hatched. I saw them a few days ago in their nest, and by 

 this time, I suppose, they are about ready to fly. — Thomas Clark ; Halesleigh, 

 June 13, 1859. 



Dates of the Arrival of Migratory Birds. — The 1 Zoologist ' (Zool. 6563) contains 

 a note of the arrival of migratory birds iu the neighbourhood of Cheltenham : as the 

 arrival of the birds mentioned appears to be generally earlier in the neighbourhood of 

 Bridgewater, in Somersetshire, about fifty miles more southerly than CheltenhaiP, 



