NOTES AND QUERIES.
AVES.
Robin in Shetland.—A specimen of Erithacus rubecula, which had been picked up dead on Mainland, Shetland, about a fortnight previously, was sent to me for identification on Feb. 13th, 1901. According to Saxby, the Robin is very rarely seen in the Shetlands; and the fact that it was unknown to my correspondent, who is well acquainted with the ordinary birds of the islands, bears this out. The specimen sent to me is probably a bird of the previous spring. The red of the throat and breast is bright, but rather pale, and of a yellowish shade.—O.V. Aplin (Bloxham, Oxon).
Blackcap Singing in February.—On Feb. 15th, at 8.35 a.m., as I was passing a small clump of bushes in a Clifton garden, my attention was attracted by an unexpected song; and in the bush I saw a Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) singing softly, as though to himself. He flew across the road when he saw me standing close to him, but at nine o'clock I found him singing again in the same place. It was a cold frosty morning, but the sun was coming out brightly. Possibly Blackcaps not infrequently winter in this neighbourhood; I was able to report one last year, on March 12th (vol. iv. p. 187).—Herbert C. Playne (Clifton College).
Marsh-Warbler at Bath.—I do not know if attention has been called previously to the probability that the Marsh-Warbler (Acrocephalus palustris) was in the habit of breeding at Bath (where several nests have been discovered more recently) nearly fifty years ago. Hewitson, in the third edition of his book ('Coloured Illustrations of the Eggs of British Birds'), which was issued in the years 1853-1856, in the article on the Reed-Warbler, writes:—".... until the last summer, during which Mr. Brown, a birdstuffer in Bath, procured for me several nests from gardens in that city, lying near the river. These were placed indiscriminately in any shrub most conveniently situated for the purpose; one was in a lilac, another in a laurustinus; and since in such a position the precaution was unnecessary [this is a mistaken idea, if the nests were Marsh-Warblers'], they were not of the usual depth which commonly characterizes the nests of this species. They were not deeper than the nests of the Sedge-Warbler, and were composed almost entirely of grass, with bits of moss bound together with wool and spiders' webs, finer towards the inside; in
