NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
177 
is found, and with fingers no longer itching for even one specimen, the glasses are 
called into service instead of the egg-box, and the collecting instinct gives way to 
that of the field naturalist. 
Cambridge. R. Bulstrode. 
Cruelty of Sparrows.— Out of five martins’ nests three are occupied by 
sparrows. In the other two the martins were allowed to establish themselves and 
lay their eggs and hatch them. But the sparrows hovered over the nests. One 
morning we saw a hen sparrow putting her head out of one of the nests occupied 
by the martins, and she then deliberately pushed two of the young martins (more 
or less feathered) out of the nest, who fell to the ground practically killed, with 
their heads pecked to pieces. The parent birds flew helplessly round, unable to 
protect themselves against the furious onslaught of the sparrows. The sparrows 
do nothing but sit on the spouting above the nests until they are finished, when 
they attack the martins and drive them ofl' and take possession of the nests. It 
seems an invariable custom here with the sparrows to eject their own young from 
the nest, as we find the corpses of the wretched little birds just below the nest. 
This year they are murdering the little martins. 
Foxion, Cambs., A. M. Greenwood. 
Ait^usl 8, 1902. 
A Pendant Martin’s Nest.— Under the eaves of a cottage here there is a 
martin’s nest built in the usual way against the wall. This being objected to by 
the cottagers, a nail has been driven into the eaves close to the nest, and from it 
a woollen rag suspended by a string six inches long, so as to flap against the nest 
and scare the birds away. On this rag a pair of martins built a nest which was 
unfortunately wrecked by the wind. A second nest is being constructed on the 
rag in mid air which twists round and round like a joint of meat before a fire. I 
hope to have it photographed. 
Market IPes/oa, Thetford, Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
Jttly, 1902 
Blackbirds. — The song of these birds is usually associated with spring and 
not with midsummer. This year, however, in consequence probably of the 
unseasonable weather in May, they have sung later than I ever remember. I 
heard their notes all through June, not only at break of day but also in the 
afternoon. One sang in my garden as late as July 17. 
Market IVeiton, Thetford, Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
August, 1902. 
“Birds and Berries” (p. 116). — Mr. Savage thinks “that thrushes 
and missel thrushes only feed on the berries of the holly when hard pressed by 
hunger.” It seems to me that missel thrushes, at all events, are very partial to 
these berries, and do not wait for hunger to make them eat them. There is a 
holly tree close to my study window which is monopolised by a missel thrush 
year after year. When the berries are ripe it sits on guard and drives all other 
birds away from its pet preserves. This goes on as long as the supply lasts. 
Market Weston, Thetford. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
July, 1902. 
Cuckoo. — I should be glad to know if the extraordinarily late incubation of 
the cuckoo has been observed in other neighbourhoods. On July 24 a young 
cuckoo was found in a hedge sparrow’s nest in my garden nearly ready to fly. 
On July 30 another was found, also in my garden and in a hedge sparrow’s nest, 
apparently hatched only a few days previously ; and to-day a third was brought 
to me in a cage, not full-grown. Unfortunately the two first have already come 
to an untimely end ; the first found I discovered dead in the nest on August i, 
apparently starved ; the second and youngest bird of all has been taken by that 
greatest of all nuisances the marauding lad of uncertain age, who to my experi- 
ence is far worse than the schoolboy, whom it is possible to imbue with interest 
in natural history while attending school. Morris gives June 26 as the latest 
record for the egg and August 18 as the latest off the nest, and five or six weeks 
