192 
NATURE NOTES 
departure. When a train passed, they flew off in a cloud, their brown backs and 
white bellies glistening in the sun. The birds are reared in the sandy banks of the 
drains in this district. 
Boston, Lines. H. E. Cocksedge. 
[I saw the same thing on August 19, at Beaumont-le-Roger in Normandy. — 
Ed. N.N.] 
Rare Birds released in England.— I quite agree with Mr. Collier in 
deprecating the destruction of rare visitants, and in regarding this as unscientific, 
lie and others who agree with him may be interested to know that I have lately 
been endeavouring to encourage some of our rarer birds, by liberating foreign 
specimens of such species as were readily obtainable. 
In all, I have let out about a score, eight or nine rosefinchea (Carpodacus 
ejythrinus) in Devonshire, nine crested larks (Gaterila cristala) in Kent, and a 
pair of black-headed buntings (Emberiza melanocephald) and a rosy pastor {Pastor 
roseus) in Regent’s Park — in the Zoological Gardens, in fact. 
All these rank among “rare occurrences” to be shot at sight. But if a 
practice be made of liberating imported examples of species like this, collectors 
will perforce have to let them alone, as it will be impossible to discriminate 
between these released captives and natural immigrants. 
Of course all enlargements of this kind should be carefully notified. There 
need be no fear of introducing noxious species by this means. No bird appears 
to be thoroughly detrimental but the house-sparrow, and in his case mere abund- 
ance has a great deal to do with his destructiveness to our crops and aggressive 
behaviour to other birds. Keep down the sparrow and liberate a specimen of an 
“occasional visitant” whenever possible, and our bird population will stand a 
chance of becoming a good deal more varied and interesting than it is at present. 
Care of Zoological Society, Frank Finn. 
3, Hanover Square. 
Strange Nesting Places. — A pair of great tits have built in a sea-kale pot 
in my garden, the entrance being formed by a small breakage in the upper rim. 
The whole floor of the pot, about a foot in diameter, was covered with moss 
to the depth of two or more inches and the actual nest hollowed out of this on 
one side. The whole brood of eight has been successfully brought off. 
A stock dove has nested on the ledge of a small window in the apex of the 
western wall of the church, the bird sitting in full view of passers by, but fifty feet 
out of harm’s way. 
White Notley Vicarage, A. F. Curtis. 
Essex. 
Birds’ Nests. — For some time I have known of a number of starlings 
inhabiting disused woodpeckers’ holes. About the middle of the breeding 
season, round about these trees, starlings’ eggs are scattered — about a dozen or 
so — apparently quite good. Can you account for this? 
In a wood near here I know of a tree with its top broken off. On this quite 
unprotected place for the last two years a pair of tawny owls have reared their 
young. This is surely a somewhat peculiar place for an owl to breed in, con- 
sidering that the sun must be full on for a great part of the day, also it is quite 
unsheltered from the rain ! 
Haileybury, July 21. R. E. W. 
[It is not at all uncommon for starlings to drop their eggs in this way. — 
Ed. N.N.'\ 
A List of Birds which Breed in the District of Beith, Ayrshire. 
— I visited Beith, Ayrshire, the second week in June, 1901, where I rambled with 
two of the most practical field ornithologists it has ever been my good fortune 
to meet. My esteemed friends, John Craig (whose painstaking work in con- 
nection with the series of cuckoo photographs taken by Mr. Peat Miller is by 
this time well known), and Matthew Barr, although only working men, and 
whose spare time is restricted, are acquainted with every species known to breed 
in their neighbourhood, and the following list was taken down by me from 
