Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/391

Rh hen bird was on the nest, however, at 7 o'clock, and at 8 a.m., to my surprise, three eggs were deposited, which caused me to make a more careful examination as to the possibility of any egg that might be laid on the edge of the nest and roll in subsequently. On the 9th, however, two more eggs were laid, and the bird commenced to sit, another egg (making a clutch of six) being added afterwards. On June 23rd three eggs were hatched, one of the remaining three being infertile. On the following morning there were four young, and in the evening the last egg was hatched. On July 6th the three young ones reared out of the five left the nest, and, as frequently happens, also left the immediate locality, neither the old nor young having been seen since in the garden. To what extent the double laying exists I am unable to say, but with close watching in future it may be possible to throw further light upon this subject. Construction of nest, 7 days; depositing clutch of six eggs, 4 days; incubation, 14-15 days; young in nest, 12-13 days; total nesting, 37 days.— (Clent, Worcestershire).

Spotless Eggs of the Spotted Flycatcher.—An answer to a correspondent, signing himself "Isham," in the 'Field' of July 23rd, to the effect that "spotless eggs of the Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa grisola) are very unusual," and further embodying a doubt as to the correct identification of the species, has just caught my eye. May I, as one almost as familiar with birds' eggs as the letters of the alphabet, and in the interests of a future generation, put it on record with all humility in the pages of 'The Zoologist' that upwards of a quarter of a century's unremitting birdsnesting has left me with the fixed conviction that of all the varieties of eggs, such as drab unspotted Chaffinches', white Robins', pink Jays', blue unspotted Blackbirds', &c, one is liable to come across, there is no freak so fashionable as a Spotted Flycatcher's nest containing a clutch of eggs with the ground colour, generally a pale blue, unruffled by spot or speck. At p. 77 of that pleasant little work, 'Our Summer Migrants,' the author, referring to the Redstart, writes as follows;—"It is not unusual to find the nest, containing five or six pale blue eggs, upon a peach or plum tree against a wall; upon a crossbeam of a summer-house." Personally, I have never known a Redstart nidificate except in a hole, or at all events in a covered site; and 1 make no doubt that much confusion has been generated in the past by eggs resembling and wrongly identified as Redstarts' being discovered in nests which in reality belonged to Spotted Flycatchers.— (Melton Mowbray).

Cuckoos recently observed in Aberdeen.—Two young Cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) were successfully hatched this year on natural pasture on my farm. In both cases the foster-parents were the same species as in the