158 
NATURE NOTES 
long, an inch high, and an inch thick, at the edge of which there was a semicircular 
hole. At first sight this looked like a bit of brick, so well was the mud worked 
together. The materials of the nest consisted of thin pieces of bark from the 
Scotch fir ; there was also a considerable number of sticks four inches long and 
thicker than a pencil ; and besides these, some flat pieces of wood, as broad as 
one’s finger, and of the same length as the sticks. All these had been picked up 
at the edge of the stream close by, for they were light and dry after being 
subjected to immersion, and had been dragged through a hole to the nest not 
much bigger than a penny piece. 
Market PVeston, Thetford. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
The Cuckoo’s Note. — I believe some correspondence appeared recently 
regarding one of the cuckoo’s notes ; I have not, however, been able to trace it. 
The ordinary note of the cuckoo is, of course, known to thousands from child- 
hood, but the one in question is, I fancy, but seldom recognised as his, save by 
experts and others who endeavour to scrape acquaintance with the feathered 
tribe. My wanderings in the country are mostly confined to the evening, and as 
far as my experience goes this particular note is the exception. Mr. Hett, in his 
Dictionary, gives it the pronunciation of “ Cule, cule (a bubbling cry, most diffi- 
cult to represent by letters),” the impression, however, created in my mind is 
that of a quick, zigzag, bubbling line of sound, which I am unable to syllable in 
any way. Is it an alarm note, or what? Will you permit me, while on the 
subject, to express my regret that so little attention is givdn to the wild birds in 
the Magazine ; the sound of their notes will often convey a fairly clear syllable,' 
and the birds themselves can frequently be stalked with a glass and identified by 
their plumage, when, as often happens, the note applies to more than one. 
Last year I was puzzled by a note that is common to two or three birds, until a 
week or so ago I managed to fix the bird with the gla.ss as I wandered through 
the wood and identified him as a nuthatch. The subject is so interesting and 
fascinating that it well deserves a space in the Magazine of a Society linked with 
the memory and associations of Gilbert White. 
Stoke Newington, N., June 20 , 1899, J. G. Bradford. 
Robin and Blackbird. — It may perhaps interest your readers to hear 
that the robin, of which a description was given in the May number of 
Nature Notes, has once more re-appeared in the garden of Eastgate, Chichester. 
But domestic cares and joys, the undoubted cause of her prolonged absence, 
have alas ! succeeded in destroying the pretty attitude of confiding trust with 
which she formerly regarded her human friends, and have changed her, for the 
present at least, into a very wild and unapproachable little bird. 
A word more about two other habituis of this garden and I have done. A 
pair of blackbirds have for three successive years contented themselves by simply 
refurnishing their old and original nest in the heart of an evergreen bush, where 
their sixth family, the second this spring, has just been reared. I should be glad 
to know if this laudable regard to the economy of time and labour is a usual 
feature amongst the blackbird tribe. 
28, St. Aubyn's, Hove. R. V. Ballard. 
The Wryneck. — It will interest your readers to know that on Tuesday, 
June 13, I had a very good view' of the wryneck (lynx torquilla) in Pittville 
Gardens, Cheltenham. The bird flew to the trunk of an elm within a few feet of 
me, and about ten feet from the ground, and most kindly remained there motion- 
less for five or .six .seconds while I gazed. A wryneck (probably the same bird) 
was seen the following day in the same gardens by another observer, who 
informed me that he had seen about half-a-dozen of these birds in this neighbour- 
hood during the ])resent season. 
2, Blenheim Terrace, Cheltenham, July 3. CoNWAY DiGUTON. 
The Bramble Finch. — A pair of these birds built this year and brought 
off their brood .safely in the churchyard of Maisemorc, near Gloucester. Only the 
vicar’s daughter knew' about the nest and .she kept the .silence which is golden. 
2, Blenheim 'Terrace, Cheltenham, July 3. Conway Dkjuton. 
