40 
BIRDS OF LEICESTERSHIRE AND RUTLAND. 
Regarding tlieir nesting, Mr. H. S. Davenport gave me the following inter- 
esting note : — “ Two INIissel-Thrushes — call them A and B — built nests at the 
same time in low trees within six yards of each other, opposite the hall-door at 
Ashlands, in IMay, 1883, and successfully reared their broods. A few days later 
both birds returned to B’s nest, in which they deposited nine eggs, of which I 
took four away, and on the remainder A commenced to sit ; meanwhile B con- 
structed another nest a short distance otf, and both birds reared their second 
broods in safety. In the first instance the eggs in both nests presented dis- 
tinctive features.” The following year he wrote on, 25th March : — “ Yesterday 
morning I found a INIissel-Thrush’s nest close to the same spot, containing seven 
eggs, all fresh, the old bird on the nest. Of the seven, four were of one size and 
shape, and three of another, and both lots correspond exactly with the eggs taken 
last year. Do you suppose that there is one cock and two hens ? I compared 
the eggs found yesterday with those (one of each) I took last year, and they 
are fac-similes.” A nest which I found on 3rd IMay, 1884, built in the fork of 
a spruce-fir close to the high road in the village of Aylestone, contained birds 
fully fledged. Both parents came from a distance on hearing the cries of the 
young as they endeavoured to escape, and for several minutes dashed around our 
heads screeching, and settled at our feet, trying to entice the young birds to 
a place of security. 
In Rutland. — Resident, and generally distributed. — ]\Ir. W. J. Horn writes 
that he has “ frequently found eggs of different sizes and shapes in the same 
nest,” but has “ had no reason to suppose they were laid by different birds. Vide 
IMr. Davenport’s note, ‘ Zoologist,’ 1885, p. 333,” and above. 
SOXGr-THRUSH. Ttirdus onusicus, Linnaeus. 
“ Mavis ” (often corrupted to “ Mavish ”), “ Throstle.” 
Resident and common, its ranks considerably increased during the autumn 
by immigration ; breeding in gardens on the verge of the town. — ]Mr. IMacaulay 
heard one in full song at Kibworth on 5th Jan., 1882, and on Christmas-day, 
1883; he also heard one singing at midnight on 27th Feb., 1885, — an unusual 
circumstance, but previously recorded by me in the now defunct ‘ Naturalists’ 
Note Book,’ as occurring in Hampshire on 20th Feb., 1867. During the mild 
winter of 1884, I heard a Thrush singing at Aylestone on the evening of 2nd Jan., 
and again, on the 5th, at half-past seven in the morning. On 9th Jan., 1888, 
I heard one singing, though not very strongly, in a garden close to the IMuseum, 
just before eight o’clock in the morning, and, curiously enough, on the same day 
I received a communication from Mr. Davenport, stating that, on the two previous 
mornings, he heard one give forth a few sweet notes at a quarter to eight. The 
writer of a literary but not very philosophical paper, pp. 24 — 27, ‘Transactions 
Leicester Lit. and Phil. Soc.,’ Jan. 1888, claims for the song of this bird a greater 
