5 ° 
THE NATURALISTS’ JOURNAL. 
and shrouded in mystery. 
Finally as to books : the best cheap book on spiders and one 
that can be well recommended is Staveley’s British Spiders, 
(Lovell, Reeve, London). It has about one hundred coloured 
figures, and is published at 10/6. The coloured figures are very 
accurate, as is the text, the latter being interspersed with numer¬ 
ous woodcuts and diagrams. This book will answer all the 
collector’s requirements for some time to come. If he is very 
enthusiastic over his spiderologv, he can obtain later “ Blackwall’s 
Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland ” (Royal Society 1861-1864.) 
The book however being very expensive will not fall to the 
possession of every spider critic. Many libraries though, will be 
found to have it in the Reference Department, stowed up in some 
mustv corner like its namesakes. 
THE BIRDS OF CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 
Bv Albert H. Waters, b.a. 
j 
(Continued from page 
The next bird on our list is the familiar Redbreast (Erythaca 
rubecula), known here generally as the Robin. As is universally 
the case, it exhibits a great fondness for human society and with a 
little encouragement soon makes itself thoroughly at home and 
becomes a semi-domesticated member of the household to which 
it attaches itself, even going the length of building its nest in an 
apartment of the house, as was the case with a pair of whose 
nidificatory exploits in this way I heard a day or two ago. Were 
I reckless of space I might fill several pages with some instances 
of curious sites for its nest, but am compelled to refrain. The 
eggs I have seen here have been mostly freckled and spotted 
with yellowish red on a greyish ground, but I have found them 
vary in the number of freckles and intensity of tint. Some have 
dark red freckles and spots on a very pale reddish white ground. 
The Redstart (Phcenicura succica) is one of our summer visi¬ 
tants, arriving here early in April and leaving us in September. 
It nests in the county and often close to houses, or even upon 
them, under the eaves, and is sometimes very eccentric in the 
choice of a site for nidification. I have not seen any particular 
variation in the colouration of its well-known greenish-blue eggs. 
The Black Redstart, {Phcenicura titys ) is very rare here. 
The Stonechat {Saxicola rubicola ) is commonest in the part of 
Cambridgeshire bordering on Suffolk. The eggs vary in the 
depth of ground colour, some being greenish blue, others a decid¬ 
ed green, now and then a very faint green, occasionally grey, 
