154 
NATURE NOTES 
young in the nest. One had been killed, but the other three were free from 
injury. — IVestern Morning News, /une 4, 1904. 
131. Birds and their Nests. — A propos of the paragraph, in Wednes- 
day’s issue of The Standard, respecting the freaks of birds in the choice of 
nesting-places, it may interest your readers to know what I can vouch for with 
regard to a pair of blackbirds. In a yew tree, some ten feet in height, I placed 
an empty cocoanut, fixing it between two upright boughs. A pair of wrens took 
possession and built therein ; then the blackbirds, thinking that the top of the 
cocoanut would serve well as a base for their nest, erected their edifice thereupon. 
The usual quota of eggs appeared. The sitting period was an eventful one, the 
violent winds over and over again bending the young yew nearly double, and 
gradually the nest in its very insecure position on the round surface of the 
cocoanut was tilted to emptying point. I came to the conclusion that of hatching 
there would be none. One morning I found the nest blown right out and lying 
on the path, and the eggs broken. It was evident that the eggs were on the 
point of hatching. 
As an expeiiment, I took the empty nest and fixed it in a secure place in 
the same tree, about one yard only from the ground. A few days after I looked 
in and found two eggs. These were added to later on, incubated, and hatched. 
Despite the nearness to the ground they escaped meandering cats, and I now 
have the satisfaction of seeing the young strong on the wing, and well able to 
look after themselves. I have neither known nor heard of birds resuming 
immediate possession of a nest so shifted and handled. The birds in question 
have built in my garden for some seasons, and are unusually tame. All through 
the two sitting periods they allowed me to handle the boughs for the purpose of 
close inspection, never leaving the nest. The cocoanut weathered the wild winds, 
and the wren occupants remain there, thankful no doubt for the weight removed 
from both mansion and mind, and for the ill wind, &c. To complete the series 
of “ flats,” sparrows have constructed their huge affair about two feet above the 
wren’s retreat. — From The Standard. 
May 27. Wm. Greenwood, 
Vicar of Foxton, Cambridgeshire. 
132. Starlings Abroad. — So many correspondents have written to 
Nature Notes anent the starling’s curious habit of laying eggs here and there 
on bare branches, whence they fall to the ground and smash, that it may interest 
them to know that the same practice has been recorded by an observer among 
the imported starlings of Victoria, Australia. These birds are, like the rabbits 
and blackberries, increa.sing in the Colonies with such tremendous rapidity that 
they are likely to become an unmitigated nuisance to small fruit-growers. In the 
Hobart Domain one may see flocks of forty or fifty birds any time they are walk- 
ing there, and in Victoria they exist in far greater numbers. A fruit-grower 
whose orchard is situate in the Derwent valley told me that they attacked his 
apples this season. If this practice spreads the starling is likely to become more 
obnoxious in Tasmania than even the sparrow. 
Hobart, May 2 , 1904. II. Stuart Dove. 
133. Avian Mania. — Nearly every year I am asked why birds tap at 
windows in the way described by your correspondents. The offenders are gener- 
ally pied wagtails, but one was a hen chaffinch last year, and the period was 
about three weeks in every case, and in the breeding season. 
W. A. Shaw. 
134. Blackcap. — I have often seen both cock and hen blackcaps fluttering 
before me on the ground when their young had just flown, but have not noticed 
them do so when they had only eggs. \V. A. Shaw. 
135. Swans. — A pair of swans always nest in the Castle moat. Last year 
my male swan persistently illtreated .some other swans which were put on the 
river, so 1 was obliged to give him away, trusting that the female would find a 
new mate, as she has done before when the male was killed on the river. As far 
as I knew she found a mate and laid two eggs. Her mate then usurped the nest 
and laid three more, and has sat tight ever since. I am almost certain both are 
