Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/268

244 April 15th, S., mild and warm. Phylloscopus trochilus heard; Hirundo rustica, several.

17lh, S., warm. Motacilla Rayi and Sylvia cinerea.

18th. Hirundo riparia.

20th, S., warm. Saxicola œnanthe, one, a male.

26th, N.E., cold. Cuculus canorus.

30th. Saxicola rubetra.

May 1st. Salicaria phragmitis ; Hirundo urbica, two.

3rd. Anthus arborea.

9lh. Sylvia hortensis.

14th. Muscicapa grisola.

16th. Grey Plover, Whimbrel aid Dunlin on Humber flats ; the former very numerous and in full breeding or summer plumage. No waders or shore birds seen after this date.

18th. Cypselus apus, many.

1 have neither seen nor heard of any Dotterel (Endromias morinellus) this season.

That most enjoyable of all sports, fox-hunting, in llie proper acceptation of the term, appears to have been unknown in Shak- speare's time. Poor Reynard's name is generally applied as an epithet, denoting a low, cunning, selfish and disreputable person. " Vulpecides," in those days, were evidently looked upon as benefactors to mankind in general, and to the British farmer and poultry keeper in particular. The time-honoured fable of the "Fox and the Grapes" crops up in All's Well that Ends Well, Act ii., Scene 1.

The fox is mentioned upwards of thirty times, but a couple of quotations illustrating his fondness for lamb (and he is no bad judge either!) will be sufficient.