Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/491

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On the 1st I saw the first Swift at Winton, and Mr. Nutt reported Meadow Pipits in water-meads. On the 3rd Swifts positively swarmed near St. Catherine's Hill, flying low, and uttering their cries. Up to the middle of this month, which has been bitterly cold, Swallows, Swifts, and Martins must have been suffering from want of food. I have never seen such numbers of them before flying, vainly for the most part, over the Itchen near the town.

On the 4th I found a clutch of six Wheatear's eggs, hard-set, on a warren (Longwood) four miles east of the town. This is an early date. I saw two Stone Curlews also there on this date, and Mr. Nutt reported these birds at Farley Mount, nort-eastnorth-east [sic] of Winton. On the 5th I saw Willow Wrens at Compton Gorse, and heard what was very likely a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. This little copse abounds in Nightingales, which were keeping up a lovely chorus when I visited it on the 8th. On the 10th Mr. Kelsall reports, "Wood Wren and Tree Pipit; Nightjar and Shrike reported." On this date Reed Buntings had eggs in water-meads (hatched on 12th), and I found a clutch of five Moorhen's eggs at Fishers Pond. I picked up a young Coot of the year on the bank, which seemed quite helpless, and had evidently been neglected by its parents. This bird breeds in fair numbers every year there, and I have March 15th, 1890, as the earliest record of its laying. It migrates partially to the coast in winter.

In the middle of the month a pair of Nuthatches, which have built in the same tree in the college meads for three years, had eggs. On the 12th a Stone Curlew's egg was brought me from a boy who had picked it up in "a hollow" near Chilcombe, three miles from the town. He said it was the only one, but how far he may be trusted is uncertain. It was quite hard-set. This egg is rarely found, though the birds breed here every year in small numbers. Two eggs were taken last year on May 6th, after a most persevering hunt, by Mr. Ensor. On this date (12th) a Carrion Crow's nest was found at Oliver's Battery, a mile from the town, with young birds in it. On the 15th a Willow Wren's nest was found with six eggs in it, and on this date five Hawfinch's eggs were taken in a wood two miles from the town. At