25 JANUARY 1935, Page 16

Earliest Birds A neighbour who has been at pains for

the last thirty years and more to discover the first birds' nests has never yet found a fresh egg in a new nest in January. To accomplish this he would have had to go to a district where ravens or crossbills flourished. Both arc winter nesters, and I believe have been known—both of them—to have started nest-building in December, as the sparrow will, though he does it merely for wantonness. Some January discoveries of the eggs of robin and wren by other people have proved—so he claims—to have been survivals from deserted nests of the year before. For myself I have one record of a robin that had one egg (in the ivy on a Rectory wall) on January 30th. This year a neigh- bour has surpassed all our past discoveries.