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THE LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE.

To the Editor of “Loudon’s Magazine.”

Some years ago, when my brother and myself were seekers of birds’ nests, we found one of the Long-tailed Titmouse (Parus caudatus), about two miles from home, containing young ones half-fledged.  Being anxious to rear them, we hit upon the plan of catching the old ones, and giving them the trouble instead of ourselves.  We accordingly set lime-twigs near the nest, and caught six old ones out of the seven of which the colony consisted, and brought them away in triumph; but the old ones would not eat in confinement, and all died but one, which we allowed to escape, in the hope that it would come back and rear the young ones.  This it did, and by the most unwearied exertion reared the whole brood, sometimes feeding them ten times in a minute.

Never having seen this social habit stated in any ornithological work to which I have access, I am not aware that it is generally known to naturalists; but it is right to state that I have only found one nest of the species since, and this my avocations would not permit me to examine.  I am therefore not aware whether the fact I have stated was an exception to the general habit of the bird, or whether such is invariably the case.  Some of your correspondents will, no doubt, be able to give an answer to this inquiry.

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IDENTITY OF THE GREEN WITH THE WOOD-SANDPIPER.

To the Editor of the “Magazine of Natural History.”

The question whether the Green and the Wood-Sandpiper are the same species seems from Rennie’s edition of Montagu’s “Ornithological Dictionary” to be undecided; but as a specimen has just come under my notice which appears to me to clear up this difficulty, I shall offer no apology for sending a description of it.

The length from the bill to the tail is 10 inches, to the end of the toes, 11 3/4 inches; breadth, 17 inches; thigh-joint to the toe, 5 1/2 inches.  The bill measures 1 5/8 inches from the corner of the mouth, and is very slender; the upper mandible, which is black and slightly curved at the point, is a little longer than the lower one, which is a dark green at the base and black at the point; a dark streak extends from the base of the upper mandible to the corner of the eye, and above it is a patch of dirty white intermixed with minute dusky spots; a small circle of dirty white surrounds the eyes; the chin is white; the cheeks, throat, and forepart of the neck white, spotted with dusky, with which colour a few laminae of each feather are marked their whole length.  The breast has a dappled stripe of the same colour as the throat running down the middle of it; with this exception it is white, as are also the belly, vent, and under tail-coverts.  The crown of the head and hinder part of the neck are a dingy brown, which on the neck has a shade of ash colour; the bend of the wing and lesser wing-coverts are a