HYBRID CROWS in KENT. on May 25Th, 1932, I Twice Put up from a Small Area of Marshland Bordering on Dungeness a Party of Three Crows
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nores HYBRID CROWS IN KENT. ON May 25th, 1932, I twice put up from a small area of marshland bordering on Dungeness a party of three Crows. The first was an adult Hooded Crow (Corvus c. comix) in good plumage. The second was a rather draggled looking Carrion- Crow (C. c. corone) with a primary missing in each wing. The third bird was clearly a hybrid, slightly smaller than either of the others, with a mouse-grey coloured back, but otherwise a dingy black all over. There can be no doubt, I think, that this was a family party, the hybrid being a young bird not long out of the nest. It seems very probable that it must have been bred in one of the thick holly clumps on Dungeness, as these are the only trees of any size in the vicinity except in the town of Lydd. Many of these holly clumps contain numerous old nests, mostly no doubt the former homes of Magpies, though several I saw might very well have once belonged to Carrion-Crows. These birds have been slowly on the increase in Romney Marsh for some years. A single instance of attempted breeding of a Hooded with a Carrion-Crow is recorded from Hothfield in 1899 m mY Birds of Kent (p. 205) ; but since then Mr. H. E. Forrest has kindly informed me that he saw what was evidently a hybrid on June nth, 1925. " When motoring between Canterbury and Richborough ", he writes, " and crossing the flats near the latter place, I saw a Crow flying across westwards that was evidently a cross between a black and grey Crow. The sun was shining on it so that I could see it very distinctly. The flanks were quite grey, but this colour did not extend upwards on to the back as it would in the pure grey Crow. So far as I could see the back was black, but as the bird was above me there might have been some grey on the back or neck ". N. F. TICEHURST. PIED WAGTAIL ROOST IN DUBLIN. THE Pied Wagtails {Motacilla a. yarrellii) returned in much increased force in the winter of 1931-2 to the roost in Dublin described in the May, 1931, issue of British Birds (Vol. XXIV., pp. 364-6). Before the end of September, 1931, a few of them were seen by Rev. P. G. Kennedy in the immediate neighbourhood, and on October 6th about a hundred were seeGn going to roost in the little plane-tree ; but on the following 94 BRITISH BIRDS. [VOL. XXVI. evening there came a rush of fully 500 Wagtails, and at least double that number took possession of the roost on the night of October 8th. From that date until the end of December there were certainly well over a thousand birds, probably not far from fifteen hundred, using the roost. On some nights they used as many as four of the row of plane-trees ; but by the end of the year they had concentrated exclusively on the first tree, which had the advantage of being distinctly the highest. For some unexplained reason the birds became less numerous about the end of December, and during January, February, and the first half of March, 1932, there were possibly not more than six hundred using the roost. The break-up for spring was, however, astonishingly slow. On March 20th I noticed that a distinct reduction in numbers had taken place. On the 24th I counted the birds flying into the tree at sunset, and found them to be 473. On the 31st they were still 418. On April 16th (the date on which in the previous year they were down to 29) Mr. Peter Dunn and I together counted 347 as they retired. On April 28th they were still 228, on May 14th 135, on May 19th about 100, on May 31st 70, and even on June 21st the roost (though now shifted into another tree, and visibly disconcerted by the crowds, bands, and flag-wavings that went on in Sackville Street during the " Congress Week" celebrations) still amounted to 48. On June 23rd, however (after a flood lighting of the street that took place at midnight on the 22nd) the number was down to about a dozen ; and these on the evening of the 24th seemed so restless that I believed their definite break-up to be now imminent, but as 45 were again roosting on the night of the 25th it seems far from improbable that these will remain throughout the summer. C. B. MOFFAT. NUTHATCH'S NEST IN A GUN. IN the summer of 1931 I saw a curious nesting-site for a Nuthatch (Sitta eu. affinis). In the grounds of St. David's College, Lampeter, Cardiganshire, Wales, there stands an old war trophy, a German anti-aircraft gun. Down the barrel of this gun a pair of Nuthatches had built their nest and reared their family. The birds had cemented the muzzle across with plaster, until an aperture was left only just large enough for them to enter. The plaster was about two inches thick in some places and within little strips of birch bark could be VOL. XXVI.] NOTES. 95 seen—nesting material so characteristic of this species. The gun stands only a few yards from a path which in term time is busily frequented by students. Professor A. E. Morris (of St. David's College), who showed me the nest, told me that this site had been used by Nuthatches for the last three years. HOWARD J. EMMET. PROLONGED BUILDING-PERIOD OF LONG-TAILED TIT. ON January 24th, 1932, a Long-tailed Tit {MgHhalos c. roseus) started to build in a gorse-bush in my wood neat- Kings Lynn, It continued building for six weeks, and I even saw it carrying nesting material when there was an inch of snow on the ground. I do not know when the first egg was laid, but the young were still in the nest on May 8th, and I believe they left it on the 9th. N. TRACY. PIED FLYCATCHER LAYING ABNORMAL EGGS IN TWO SEASONS. IN 1931 a Pied Flycatcher (Muscicapa h. hypoleuca) laid six abnormal eggs in a nesting box here (Llysdinam, Newbridge-on-Wye, Radnorshire), the eggs being only about one quarter the normal size. The first two were destroyed, presumably by the bird herself. Three fertile eggs from other nests were substituted for the other four and these she successfully reared. This year, in a box about 30 yards from last year's nest, three precisely similar (very small) eggs were laid and then a fourth of nearly normal size but with no shell. This one was destroyed, presumably by the bird. Fertile eggs were sub stituted for the three small ones and then she laid a fifth of normal size but abnormal shape, and a sixth—practically a normal egg. She has now successfully reared the substituted eggs. The similar type of abnormality coupled with the destruc tion of one or two of the deformed eggs seems to make it nearly certain that this is one and the same bird. C. VENABLES LLEWELYN. INCUBATION- AND FLEDGING-PERIODS OF CHIFFCHAFF. THE following observations of the incubation- and fledging- periods of the Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus c. collybita) were made by us at Stanway, Gloucestershire, in 1932. In each case all 96 BRITISH BIRDS. [VOL. XXVI. the eggs hatched and all the young left the nests alive. In case No. 4, when the nest was found empty, the young were near it and still had small tufts of down over each eye. During the last two or three days the young are in the nest there is no perceptible change in their appearance. It will be noticed that incubation in each case was 13 days and the fledging-period 14 days. May May May May May June June June Nest 13 14 27 29 30 10 12 13 1 — *6 eggs 6 p.m. — — o p.m. — — hatched nest empty 2 3 eggs — 6 eggs Noon — — 9.30 p.m. — hatching nest empty 3 2 eggs — 6 eggs — Noon — — 6p.m. hatching nest empty 4 — 3 eggs 6 eggs — Noon — — fi.30 p.m. hatching nest empty •So found eggs fresh. Presumed incubation begun this date. GUY CHAKTF.RIS. \V. WILKINSON. CURIOUS FATALITY TO A REDBREAST AND ITS YOUNG. LORD DUNLEATH has sent me an adult female Redbreast (Erithacus r. melophilus) which was attached to a nestling about two days old by a horsehair, which passed down the throat of each. The birds were picked up dead in this con dition on the lawn at Ballywalter Park, northern Ireland, on June nth, 1932. About three inches of the hair binding the two birds was exposed and each end passing down the gullet of each bird was firmly fixed in the contents of their gizzards. The gizzards were both packed tight with insect food, which has been very kindly examined by Dr. F. Laing, of the British Museum. Wings, legs and parts of the body of Bibio, pro bably nigriventris, and a Crane fly, Tipula, probably oleracea, were plentiful, and most of the entangling of the hair was in these remains. There were also weevil remains, possibly Sciaphilus muricatus, and a number of legs of spiders and some grass-seeds. I was unable to pull the hair out of either bird's mouth, and it seems evident that the parent bird had dragged the nestling out of the nest in its effort to get free from it.