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NATURE NOTES, 
Under the title “Bird’s-eye Views, New and Old,” Mrs. Green has begun 
in New and Old a series of articles on our common birds, which, judging from 
the first, will be bright and interesting. Mrs. Green, whom we are glad to 
reckon among our contributors, is an original member of the Selborne Society, 
and all that she writes will be in accordance with the spirit of that association. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Where are the Tits ? (p. 57). — Here they are — at Malvern Wells. Great 
tits, tom tits, coal tits, and little marsh tits come and go the livelong day. They 
have been with us through the intense frost, five of them frequently clinging to the 
fat that is ever to be found hung from a stick by a sitting-room window. They 
are indifferent to position evidently, clinging back or head downwards ; no 
matter — while fat remains tits attack it industriously. In a quiet side window 
hangs a terra-cotta bowl well supplied with the dainty, and known only to tits, 
robins, thrushes, and a nuthatch. Sparrows come not there, but tom tit sits long 
and often in it, while his companion peeps over its edge or clings to the angle of 
the house wall watching an opportunity for a feed. Robin with open beak will 
charge an intruding great tit, and sometimes a thrush with proud mien and 
startled air will stand on the edge of the bowl before making a dash at its con- 
tents. The nuthatch, not seen before this winter, made it his feeding-ground, 
but he fled with the melting of the snow. Chaffinches, glorious in colour, during 
the frost sat on the window-sill holding the bold sparrow at bay. Thrush 
and blackbird made it their almost hourly haunt. The starlings came. At- 
tracted one Sunday morning by a row of many birds sitting in the snow that 
covered the holly hedge, and hearing a strange worrying sound outside the 
window, we went to it to know the cause. Up flew a dozen starlings. They 
held the window-sill and its precious bird-breakfast of bread and seed. The face 
of the earth changed. The air was full of sound. Bird-life was chanting a 
thanksgiving — the frost was departing. Let “ X.” be happy — the tits are here 
with us still. 
Malverii Wells. Y. 
Aviary (p. 76). — May I suggest some favourite tit-bits for the little captives? 
For the greenfinch, oats ; goldfinch, ripe thistle heads ; redpoll, little bits of nut ; 
siskin, nearly ripe alder-cones ; and for bully, apple (not forgetting the pips), 
cherry, strawberry, and occasionally a few tiny caterpillars or green flies. 
H. B. R. 
A Word for the Cuckoo (p. 77). — May I venture to suggest that your 
correspondent, “ C. C.,” has hardly considered all that is implied by the theory 
put forward as to the cuckoo’s parental affection? It seems to come to this — 
that when the cuckoo lays an egg she makes a note, mental or otherwise, to this 
effect : — “ April 20. — Laid an egg in hedge-sparrow’s nest in such a place. 
Memorandum ; though I never sat myself, I have reason to expect, ‘ from infor- 
mation received,’ that it will be hatched in about a fortnight. I mustn’t forget to 
look round and inquire how the dear child is getting on, and to thank the foster- 
parents.” Mr. Johns tells us that the number of eggs laid by the cuckoo is 
variously estimated from five to twelve. I suppose that on “ C. C.’s” hypothesis 
a separate “ memo.” is made respecting each egg, and the parent cuckoo calls at 
each nest, not to bring food, but to make a pretty speech, something like this : 
“ Dear me, he’s the image of his papa ! It is most kind of you to take so much 
trouble.” Is it not a more simple and probable supposition that a second cuckoo 
came to the same place as the first with the same intention, viz., of laying an egg ? 
The small birds in such cases, I think, usually show excitement and alarm. 
Otham Parsonage, Maidstone. F. M. Millard. 
Jay at Window. — Mr. Knightley’s account of a spotted woodpecker 
amongst the birds which came to his windows to be fed (p. 73) is very interesting 
and, I imagine, very rare ; but we had a bird almost as rare amongst our visitors 
