NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
77 
pleasure to us, appreciated all the more because we live in a London suburb, 
within 4J miles of Charing Cross. Erch year there are three or four blackbirds’ nests 
in our garden ; sometimes a chaffinch, blue titmouse, robin or thrush will build, 
and we have frequent visits from great tits, hedge-sparrows, greentinches and 
another bird, which I take to be a g irden- warbler. Unfortunately, there are few 
suitable places for nesting, and it occurred to me that something might be done to 
encourage the birds named by using nestmg-box^s, such as are evidently used by 
some of your correspondents. I should be glad of information as to the kind of 
bo.x used, and the most suitable po^itions for them, the aspect, and so forth. Two 
years ago a blue-tit built in my garden wall within a yard of the high road, but the 
newspaper-boy found the nest, and the young ones were taken, presumably on the 
very day they would have down. At any rate, one did escape, a considerable 
distance from home. I have not had the opportunity of carefully studying bird- 
life, but I think the following must be a very unusual experienee: — .-V blackbird 
built last year in a low pear tree in my garden, early in the season, and, as I 
believe, brought off four broods from the same nest. I can personally vouch for 
two in rapid succession. I was told that the bird was sitting for the third time, but 
did not myself see it, and, on my return from my holidays, heard from my children 
that the third brood had flown. I certainly saw, in contir nation, young birds 
in the garden, and the nest was empty, .\fter this, I saw the old bird again 
sitting in the nest, late in the year, on what I believe were the fourth, and un- 
questionably were the third, lot of eggs. She safely reared them. I should be glad 
to know whether this is not q lite exceptional. Will birds build a second year in 
the same place if the old nest is removed ; or is it an inducement to them if the nest 
be left untouched 
Tulse Hill Robin. 
A Plea for the Robin (p. 57).— If the statement of yout correspondent is 
correct, cannot some remedy be found for the slaughter of robins? One would 
have thought that national sentiment would have protected him, but it does not 
seem so. The gradual extermination of the egret seems to be but little affected 
by the great difficulty which is experienced in ob:aining it. but what must be 
the fate of the robin, whose tameness and contidence in man must necessarily 
go against him, if this inhuman fashion of wearing robins’ plumage once takes 
root ? 
G. H. S. 
Higrhsfate Woods. — We are glad to note that the joint coAimittee appointed 
to secure for the public Churchyard Bottom Wood at Higbgate have lost no time 
in taking action. They have issued a circular giving particulars of the little bit of 
“ prim.eval forest” wnich it is intended to secure, and appealing for aid. Some 
;^i 5,033 remains to be raised, and public grants and private donations ought 
soon to amount to that. Highgate Wood, in the words of the Chairman of the 
Committee, Mr. Cory Wright, is “ one of the choicest and most sylvan pieces of 
woodland which is to be found anywhere within the five-mile radius of Charing 
Cross,” and it ought to be preserved. The Secretary of the Fund is .Mr. Lionel 
Curtis, I, Great College Street, Westminster. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Th3 Birn Onrl in Ciptivity. — ^In Nature Notes for 1895 (p. 173) I 
gave an account of my barn owls and the rearing of young in captivity. Tne first 
year that the eggs were hatched out I only succeeded in getting one bird, and 
owing probably to insufficient care in the matter of food, during a short time I 
was away, I lost this one when about six months old, and I am sorry to say that 
it was eaten by the old birds, probably after death. Last year two owlets were 
hatched out on March 19, and I have now removed them from the nest and 
placed them in a separate owl house. They are both exceedingly fine young 
birds, in perfect plumage, and, curiously enough, one closely resembles the cock, 
and the other the hen bird, in both build and face. I notice that they are both 
lighter in colour than the parent birds, and the spots on the white breasts are 
very much less defined. I am inclined to think that the plumage deepens in 
