British Birds. 
265 
in aiiolher corner of the slielter and advantage was at once taken 
of a suitable cavity which I had arranged in the pile. A typical, 
broad, shallow Wagtails nest was built, but the hen, instead of 
laying eggs in it, couinienced to mope and have fits ; she 
eventually recovered, but abandoned the idea of rearing a 
family, and as recorded on page 128 of the current volume of 
Bird Notes, a hen Snow Bunting laid three eggs in the nest with- 
out a protest from the Wagtails. The cock makes a pretty and 
interesting display to the hen, walking round her and singing 
with his bill almost touching his breast, and his wings and tail 
spread to their fullest extent, the latter trailing on the ground. 
Both birds are at the present time in splendid plumage, 
and if the coming winter does not prove too much for them, I 
am almost sure they will nest successfully next spring. 
A Belated Swallow : It may interest readers to know 
tliat I saw a single Swallow here (Stubbington, near Lee-on-the- 
Solent), on November 3rd, hawking over a stretch of swampy 
ground adjoining the beach. It struck me as remarkable, for 
we had several degrees of frost that morning and the weather 
was both cold and stormy. I have not seen it since. 
H. W. Mathias. 
A Pet Swallow : Our esteemed member Mr. Millsum 
has a pet Swallow, which I had the pleasure of seeing on 
November 13th. It is a vigorous specimen, in good feather and 
condition, still in nestling plumage, and does not yet show any 
indication of the moult. I gleaned the following facts : — 
It was taken from the nest, when about three days old, 
about the middle of August. 
It was reared on Mr. Millsum's usual soft food mixture, 
ground to flour and moistened to a pasty condition — it was fed from 
the end of a quill — for the first ten days no live food was given, 
afterwards chopped mealworms, but it was^soon able to take these 
entire. For two months it was regularly fed by hand, even after 
it was able to fend for itself. At the present time it is fed on the 
usual insectile mixture, supplemented with a few mealworms. 
W. T. P. 
