JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES AMONG BIRDS.
LTO THE EDITOR. OP THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Is this conduct usual, and can any of your readers throw light upon it ? In this garden a thrush is sitting on a nest of blackbird's eggs, now just hatched. The nest is a blackbird's; the eggs were blackbird's, but a thrush sits upon them ; a cock blackbird sits on a branch just above, and sings to the sitting bird. What can this mean ? One might have supposed that somebody had changed the eggs were it not for the cock blackbird sitting above. There is no mistake about the facts ; the nest is close to the path, and we watch the performance every day. There is no other nest that we can find in any of the neighbouring bushes.—I am, Sir, &c.,
P.S.—I might mention that two years ago a child then staying in the house reported exactly the same to be happening in the bush just the other side of the path, but we then paid no attention as it was only a child's report. We have now seen it ourselves.
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