Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/238

216 migrants seems to have been general. I have not seen or heard of a single Woodcock. Fieldfares and Redwings arrived here in countless numbers about the fourth week in October, and after staying a few weeks they disappeared, nor have I seen—with the exception of a flock of Redwings which appeared on the 26th December—a single example of either species since. There has been scarcely any migratory movement among our partial migrants, yet it is certain we received a large immigration of Rooks up to the end of autumn. Hen Chaffinches, as usual, migrated, returning, however, about the end of February Starlings have been more or less in flocks all the winter. When collecting cocoons of Saturnia Carpini on the moors, I was surprised at the number of Wrens I met with till the end of December. They must have found a scanty subsistence; I had a chase after one of them, and I would strongly recommend it to those whose habits of life are of a sedentary character, as I can testify to its beneficial effects in calling the dormant muscles into action. Vast flocks of Mealy Redpolls have visited our birch copses this winter. I saw them many times in December, but took them to be Lesser Redpolls. On the 4th February I saw two which had been shot out of the flock, and identified them as Mealy Redpolls. Their superior size, the comparatively light-coloured rump, and the relative length of the fourth primary, are features which sufficiently differentiate them from the commoner species. I first saw the Pied Wagtail on the 24th February. A person brought me a Stonechat which had been shot on the 5th March. Probably this was not a migrant. Wheatears were somewhat late in their arrival. This might have been owing to the cold weather which set in on the 21st March. They did not arrive here until the 6th April.— (Wilsden).

— I expressed my conviction (p. 30) that Mr. Cordeaux was wrong in stating that the song of the Willow Wrens was dependent upon, and consequently not heard until, the arrival of the females, which succeed the males, Mr. Cordeaux thinks, a few days. I believe, providing the weather is warm and their insect-food abundant, we hear their song immediately after their arrival. This has been undoubtedly the case this year. It seems to be less capricious in its time of arrival, and not so susceptible to atmospheric influences, as most of our summer migrants. The date on which it made its appearance in 1876 was the 14th April, although a bitterly north-east wind prevailed. In 1877, on the 12th, which was also a most cold and backward spring. During the present year the wind was west, temperature warm. I heard a Ring Ouzel on the 14th April; and an ornithological friend told me he had both seen and heard it on this date. Probably it had been absent for a few days, as a gamekeeper told me that he and a friend had seen one on the 6th. On the evening of the 17th April I saw a flock of Fieldfares—for the first time since their