NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
177 
of these well known birds occurred in the district in especial abundance, so much 
so as to attract the attention of persons not tliven as a rule to remarking on the 
sights and sounds of rural life. Altogether the spring of 1900 has been scpinewhat 
disappointing. One beautiful entomological object, however, I was glad to see 
again, viz., the azure blue butterfly (L. argiolns) flitting round my shrubs towards 
the end of April. I had not seen this delicately-tinted species in Berkshire since 
1872. 
Fyfield, near Abingdon. \V. H. Warner. 
Eccentric Nesting of tlie Great Titmouse. — On May 22, 1S99, 
my friend, Mr. lames Hunt, of this village, took me to see one of the most 
interesting nests I have ever met with. In a yard adjoining an hotel, and close 
to a busy railway junction, there is held every month a sale of stock — the place 
becomes crowded with farmers, drivers, auctioneers, and with cattle, sheep, and 
pigs. So great is the crowd and confusion that it is not always very pleasant to 
pass that way when the sale is in full swing. It happens that in this yard there 
is an old seed-drill which has for some reason or other fallen out of use : it stands 
just where the auctioneer’s platform is raised, and is moved (so I am told) to 
make room for it. It has four bo.xes, with lids, in which the seed is put when 
the machine is at work, and attached to each box is a narrow curved pipe, 
through which the seed drops out on the ground as the machine is driven over a 
field. When we leached this object Mr. Hunt opened one of the lids, and there 
in the box was the nest of a great tit, containing eleven beautiful eggs : the nest 
was substantially built, but all the materials had been brought into the box 
through the narrow pipe below it. In spite of the confusion of at least one sale, 
in which the titmouse had to give way to the auctioneer, the nest escaped, and 
the young brood was successfully reared. 
This year it never occurred to me to see whether any of the boxes had been 
utilised in the same curious w.ay — one would suppose that the bird, glad to have 
escaped the natural penalty of her rashness, would have looked out for a safer 
place. But there is no accounting for the ways of birds, any more than for the 
ways of human beings. This morning !Mr. Hunt beckoned to me as he was 
working in his allotment, and entrusted me with the secret that the same bird 
(as we may fairly presume) has already reared one brood in the seed-drill this 
year, and is now engaged with another ! As I was going down to the station I 
took an opportunity, when no one was about, of getting into the yard and 
examining the drill. I opened the lid of the same box which had been tenanted 
last year, and there, sure enough, was not only the nest, but the bird herself. 
As .she entirely declined to leave her eggs, though my hand was not more than a 
few inches from her, I softly closed the lid and left her to herself. I have not the 
least doubt that she will rear this second brood. There must indeed be some, 
both boys and men, who know of the nest besides Mr. Hunt and myself ; but, 
thanks to the growing humanity of our species and the gradual advance of the 
principles of the Selborne Society, this confiding pair of titmice need stand in no 
fear of them. W. Warde Fowler. 
Kingham, Chipping Norton, 20, 1900. 
Boxes for Birds. — Last year I related an instance of a tomtit turning a 
pair of nuthatches out of a box in which they had commenced to nest. This 
year the nuthatches have reversed matters by ousting the tits. In another box 
a brood of tits has been reared. Then a hornet adopted the box and commenced 
to make its comb, but was ejected. After this, a bumble bee made her hive in the 
box among the dJbris of the tit’s nest. 
Market Weston, Thetford. EuMUND Thos. Daubeny. 
Morality in Domestic Pigeons. — I had occasion a week or more ago 
to kill the hen bird of a pair of domestic pigeons, which had just hatched 
and brought off two young ones. My reason for so doing was that I had had 
for some months an odd hen bird of a more suitable kind, towards which I 
hoped the widower would make matrimonial advances. Judge, however, of my 
surprise when, within forty-eight hours of the death of the hen, on looking into 
the nest I found the erst-while unmated bird sitting on two eggs and being 
