XATURAL HISTORY XOTES 
169 
always inclines birds in actions we find clever or touching ? The young cuckoo 
has got to turn out the eggs : though born blind and naked, it is not feeble : it is 
at once active and restless. All observers of the cuckoo, I think, agree in saying 
that the eggs are ejected from the nest by the third day as a rule, sometimes 
by the first day ; if in a nest of any depth the creature has to straddle up in 
order to heave the burden off its back. This, and the eerie way the blind thing 
feels about, has been described to me by the only person I have met who has seen 
the process. One cannot help a conjecture as to the “ climb claw ” (parrot-like) 
which the cuckoo possesses. The disappearance of the eggs ejected could be 
easily accounted for. 
17, Glover Road, Reigate. Harriet B. Blair. 
645. Thrushes. — Is not the knocking of the beech-nuts, described as 
empty, caused by thrushes keeping their bills in order ? Birds in captivity are 
constantly rubbing and scraping their beaks. 
Harriet B. Blair. 
646. Blackbirds’ Novel Bath. — The Vicar of Haywards Heath (the 
Rev. T. G. Wyatt), having received complaints of flowers having been taken 
from graves in the parish churchyard, directed a watch to be kept for the purpose 
of detecting the culprits, who were thought to be school children. After a pro- 
longed stay in his hiding-place, the verger was about to retire when he noticed 
a number of blackbirds settle upon the graves. Very soon they started pulling 
the flowers from their zinc casings and then scattered them over the churchyard. 
Having got rid of all the flowers, the birds returned to the graves and bathed 
themselves in the water in which the flowers had been placed. The noise they 
made suggested that they greatly enjoyed their ablutions. — Mornmg Post, jluly 13. 
647. Goldfinch. — While referring to Cowper’s poems recently, I met with 
the name “ Redcap,” as applied to the goldfinch in “■ Pairing time anticipated.” 
If Mr. G. A. B. Uewar, who in the February issue of Nature Notes asked 
about the name, has not already noted it, he will doubtless be interested in the 
reference. 
Louth, lAncs. C. S. Carter. 
648. Nightingales. — I think it may interest some of your readers to know 
that a pair of nightingales made their nest this summer in the porch of a house 
standing in Warwick Crescent, Leamington, and brought their young ones to 
maturity, a most remarkable thing, as it seems to me, for so shy a bird as the 
nightingale to do. There are several other houses in the Crescent. 
Emscote Vicarage, 
IVarwick, T. B. Dickins, LL. D. 
August 10, 1908. 
649. Double Neats.— In the Natural History Notes for August (638), Mr. 
E. T. Daubeny describes a double nest of great tits built side by side in a flower- 
pot : he suggests the possibility of the male bird having two wives. If so, it may 
e.\plain a case I observed in a verandah balcony off my bedroom. A pair of 
swallows built a nest at one end. The little mud house was hardly completed 
before some sparrows came and tried to turn the builders out. For three days war 
was waged over the little homestead, I doing all I could to help the swallows. 
However, the sparrows finally conquered and the swallows flew away in despair. 
Retribution visited the robbers two days after they had evicted the rightful owners, 
for the mud of the nest (probably loosened by the battle waged over it) fell down into 
the flower-bo.K below. To my surprise the very day this happened t/i7'ee 
swallows arrived, and after inspecting the ruins of the nest they proceeded to 
build another nest at the other end of the verandah, and hatched out six little 
ones, who all learnt to fly from the balcony rail. I never could discover whether 
two of the three were females. Could it be another case of bird bigamy ? 
I thought the three came together to enable them to fight and drive out the sparrows 
from the first nest. 
Brogueswood, Emily Conybeare-Craven. 
Biddendeti. 
