nest of the Wagtails, with the result that a very sturdy young Cuckoo has monopolized the space usually occupied by some four Wagtails, and has secured for himself the nutriment which should have been divided amongst the whole family. The bird in question is so far advanced as to have left its borrowed home, and may daily be seen with gaping mouth awaiting the visits of its foster-parents, whose energy is somewhat severely taxed in supplying the wants of their giant offspring, whom they doubtless regard as a very undesirable boarder.—F.G. Nicholson (Pretoria, Transvaal, January, 1897).
[The nest of the Cape Wagtail is usually found in wall-crevices, banks, crannies of rock, or in some creeping vegetation on a wall or tree. Mr. Nicholson now records it as found in garden shrubs, and I have seen it in thorn-bushes on the veld. Mrs. Barber has stated that the Golden Cuckoos lay pure white eggs in the nests of the Cape Bunting, Fringillaria capensis (F. vittata, Lay.) and all the Nectariniæ (Sun-birds). Mr. Jackson found pure white eggs—which have been considered to belong to this Cuckoo—in nests of the Rufous-chested Weaver-bird, Hyphantornis capitalis.—Ed.]
Unusually large number of Pintails in Co. Mayo.—The unusually large numbers of Pintails visiting the estuary this season is very remarkable, when the mildness of the weather is considered, and except during the hard frost of January, 1881, when the mercury fell to 7° on the night of the 15th, I have never seen their numbers equalled. We usually have a little family party of twelve to fifteen birds regularly visiting the sands in company of Wigeon every winter; but last month a flock of eighty birds was seen by Capt. Kirkwood, of Bartragh, feeding in a sandy bay within sight of his parlour-windows, and I have myself on several occasions counted upwards of fifty feeding together. It would be interesting to learn if there has been an unusually large migration to other parts of the coast this season.— Robert Warren (Moyview, Ballina, Feb. 6th, 1897).
Green Sandpiper in Co. Waterford.—Two specimens of this species were shot in Curraghmore on the 23rd and 25th November last year. They frequented the sides of the pond, and were very wild. Mr. E. Williams, who is mounting them for me, says that the contents of the stomach of both birds were in such a soft and liquid state that it was impossible to know on what they had been feeding. Thompson states, on the authority of the late Dr. R.J. Burkitt, that "the Green Sandpiper is very rarely seen near Waterford." My friend Mr. Ussher informs me that he has shot it on three occasions in the county.—William W. Flemyng (Coolfin, Portia w, Co. Waterford).
Vultures and the Towers of Silence.—In connection with the bubonic plague now decimating certain parts of India, the following facts, communicated
