Chirps and 
Chatter. 
(61) THE BIRD WORLD. 
Tettenhall to Brewood, I had the 
pleasure of seeing in the fir trees 
on the side of the canal that 
rare British bird—very rare in 
these parts—the Golden-crested Wren. 
This Wren is about the smallest of our 
British birds—so small and so retiring 
in its habits, that one has to be very 
quick of vision to get a glimpse of this 
‘ Tom Thumb 5 of the feathered tribe. 
Hearing the bird's note, I made best use 
of my eyes, and for a few seconds saw my 
little friend flying from tree to tree. The 
common birds were very_ much in 
evidence along the route, but a few I 
saw are worthy of special notice—the 
Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler, Winchat, 
and Black-headed Bunting. 
Forty-Three Birds Reared in Letter-Box. 
A Blue-Tit has built her nest in a 
letter-box at Long Sutton for the fifth 
year in succession. The bird has 
thirteen eggs this season, and up to the 
present has already reared in the nest 
in this letter-box forty-three birds. 
Birds' Joint Household. 
Lieut.-Colonel Loyd, referring to the 
finding of twenty-two mixed eggs of the 
Pheasant and Partridge in the same 
nest, says this very often occurs. Such 
mixed nests are by no means uncommon, 
as the wild Pheasant is very fond of lay¬ 
ing in the nest of the Partridge. He 
further says: “ I have some shooting 
through which the railway runs, and 
about this time last year a platelayer 
showed me a Partridge sitting on her 
nest in a blackberry bush on the rail¬ 
way embankment. The nest contained 
nine Pheasant’s eggs and fifteen Part¬ 
ridge’s eggs. 
« 
Pigeons Debut at Court. 
During the hearing of a somewhat 
dry-as-dust case at the Liverpool Court 
of Passage the attention of the judge, 
jury, and spectators was distracted at 
intervals by the manoeuvres of a Homer 
Pigeon, which had gained access to the 
building in some mysterious manner. 
The bird flew hither and thither, perch¬ 
ing first on the back of the jury box, 
then alighting on the top of a column, 
and. finally threatening to rest on the 
judge’s head. Unlike Poe’s Raven, how¬ 
ever, the feathered visitor swerved and 
went to the back of his Lordship’s chair. 
Ultimately, it was captured by Mr. 
Morrison, the superintendent of the hall, 
who found it to be half-starved, and, 
having on its wing a stamp bearing the 
name of an owner in Llanelly. That 
its troubles should end in a court of 
justice may be looked upon by some as 
rather curious. 
The Arrival of the Tern. 
Writing of the migratory birds and 
the weather, an Oban correspondent 
says: “ With the advent of the Tern we 
generally expect and get better weather. 
The first arrival of Terns was noted in 
Oban bay on May 18th. These pretty 
birds lend a certain charm and life to 
the water. Graceful to a degree, it is 
most interesting to watch them, now 
skimming the top of the water, then 
poised on high, and a second later 
diving and catching small fish, etc. In 
this locality we have two varieties of 
Terns—the common Tern and the arctic 
Tern. The nesting haunts of these 
birds seem to overlap in this district. 
Both kinds nest in considerable numbers 
on most of the islands and stacks in the 
neighbourhood. The little Tern is also, 
not entirely unknown, and several nest¬ 
ing places are now an established fact in 
several of the Outer Islands. 
The Tearful Month of May. 
The cold, pitiless rains of the early 
part of May were very harmful to bird 
life. In St. James’ Park a Hedge-Spar¬ 
row, always one of the first and most 
obvious of builders among birds, was 
driven off her nest and eggs by the 
weather, and seemed to have deserted 
them in despair. Some Thrushes’ nests 
in the same neighbourhood, insufficiently 
protected by leaf, were little ponds of 
water; and it may be inferred from the 
distressed clattering in the rookery that 
many of the homes, in some of which the 
eggs had already been hatched, were in 
a sorry plight. 
