2i8 
NATURE NOTES 
by no means least, they are most useful in helping to keep down the multitudes 
of insects, which, were there no birds, would soon become as a plague. 
In this particular garden there were several families of robins, and as in the 
case of the robin both birds sing, the hen being the better singer of the two, 
which is, I suppose, unique among birds, their song at dusk, from one part of the 
garden or the other, was sometimes almost continuous I suppose few are aware 
that in the song of the robin may be clearly detected the notes of many of our 
best known smaller song birds, the reproduction being often so clever as to deceive 
even the most experienced ear. 
I was asked a short time ago if hen robins had red breasts. I always under- 
stood they had, but I could not feel absolutely positive about the matter. I 
believe no robins have red breasts until they arrive at a certain age. 
C. E. C. 
Late Nesting. — A pair of swallows (or martins) were observed feeding 
young ones in a nest built under the eaves of a farm building on September l8. 
W. 
Habits of Nightjar. — The nightjar is quite an adept at playing the trick 
described by Mr. W. Denne. I have noticed it for many years. In July of the 
present year my son flushed a nightjar on VVestcott Gore, Surrey. She got up as 
though with difficulty, skimming the bracken-tops with the right wing held as 
though broken, and inviting us to go in pursuit. I immediately looked around 
among the heather for her nesting. place, and there at our feet were two newly- 
hatched balls of grey down, and the still moist egg-shells. I visited them every 
day for about a fortnight to mark their progress in life, and every day the mother 
flew off with precisely the same tactics, to the branches of a particular oak-tree on 
the edge of a wood, whence she hurled a volume of uncomplimentary remarks at 
me. On the tenth day my daughter reported that the birds had disappeared, and 
I found they had removed to a clear spot among the heather about a couple 
of yards away, the original site having probably become stale. The young ones 
remained as still as stones, but on taking them up to examine their plumage they 
hissed vigorously. They were then (August l) fully fledged, though a little down 
and the sheaths of the dorsal feathers still remained. They stretched their long 
wings and flew, one about thirty yards away, the other at least sixty yards, to the 
young oaks where the mother-bird was sitting. 
Harlesden, N. IV. Edward Step, F.L.S. 
Oct. 5, 1900. 
Insect-eating Birds. — I wish to feed blackbirds, thrushes, and other 
insect-eating birds on my lawn during the winter. Could you tell me what would 
be the most suitable food ? C. B. 
[Bread, not sopped, wheat, cracked maize, split marrow-bones, cocoa-nuts, 
which may well be afterwards filled with suet, hemp seed, sunflower fruits, and 
pans of water. It is said that suet put on the under side of large* boughs inclined 
about 45° will be safe from sparrows. — Ed. N . N .'\ 
Summer Migrants. —In reply to Mr. Westell on p. 196, he is quite 
right in presuming that I mean the titlark as the tree-pipit. The meadow-pipit 
only visits the locality from September until April, and until within a few years 
since I considered it a winter migrant ; but on visiting Sutton Park, near 
Birmingham, with a friend some five or six years ago, I found them very 
common, with nests, eggs, and young, by the side of the ditches among the rushes. 
The corn-bunting, or brown-bunting, I never see in winter, and it is a very 
rare visitor here in the summer, therefore I included it with my list of summer 
migrants. I heard two chiff-chaffs on September 26, and am informed that a 
cuckoo was seen on the telegraph wires on September 27. 
James IIiam. 
Parroquets. — Early one beautiful morning last week, while resting on a 
seat in Hampstead Lane, I noticed some starlings accompanied by two larger 
birds with long tails and making a loud chattering, flying from the wood across 
the road to one of the fruit trees in Caen Wood Towers Garden, and was at a 
loss to know what birds they were. Yesterday, when returning from the same 
