becomes deeply tinted with orange at the following moult. I regret that, owing to the death of the bird with which I experimented at this stage, I am unable to say positively that perseverance in the same treatment would have completely restored the wild plumage; but it is quite reasonable to suppose that such would have been the case. I should judge that the gradual and uniform change of colouring from red to orange in Mr. Renshaw's bird was due to his giving it abundance of insect-food; similarly treated in a large sunny open-air aviary, it is probable that the typical colouring would have been retained.—A.G. Butler (124, Beckenham Road, Beckenham, Kent).
Nest of the Reed Bunting.—I found a nest of this species on the 2nd of this month (June) built in a somewhat unusual position. It was at the extreme edge of an osier-bed skirting a small tributary of the river Suir. The nest was built at the junction of two branches of willow, crossing each other, and was perfectly suspended, and overhung the water, from which it was distant 5½ ft. I watched the hen for some time. She uttered occasionally a single note, and behaved quite differently to a pair of Lesser Redpolls which had a nest close by, and which were very noisy and excited. There were four young birds in the nest. They were apparently four or five days old, and the hen had her mouth full of small pieces of willow-leaves, which I saw her gather, evidently for the young. It was a very untidy nest, composed of moss and catkins of willow roughly put together.—William W. Flemyng (Coolfin, Portlaw, Co. Waterford).
Grey Wagtail Nesting in Lincolnshire.—When recording this in the last number of 'The Zoologist,' I forgot to mention that the nest was lined exclusively with white cow-hair, a material which appears to be invariably used by the Grey Wagtail. Also that within an hour of the young leaving the nest the old birds had succeeded in getting them to the nearest running water, about three hundred yards from their nesting place.—John Cordeaux (Great Cotes House, Lincoln).
Nesting of the Grey Wagtail in Leicestershire.—Mr. John Cordeaux always wields an attractive pen, but, so far as I personally am concerned, exceptional interest attaches to his note on the breeding of the Grey Wagtail in Lincolnshire—the first recorded instance for that county—as detailed in the June issue of 'The Zoologist.' Mr. Cordeaux, apart from the intrinsic interest of his narrative, has eloquently demonstrated the unwisdom of placing too much reliance on preconceived ideas; in other words, the mistake of assuming that because such and such a bird has never been known to breed in such and such a county, it is next door to impossible for it ever to do so. In 'The Vertebrate Animals of Leicestershire and
