Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/91

Rh grating alarm-note. I made a careful approach, but there was something mysterious about the way in which the birds stole from tree to tree without showing themselves. Finally, however, amongst the yellow of the young oak-leaves, I got a glimpse of brighter gold, as two male birds, hopping and fluttering from branch to branch, came into the field of my pocket-telescope. After this the Oriole soon became common, and was distributed all through the woods wherever oaks occurred. I could hear half a dozen in a short evening walk along the margin of the forest. But they were invariably shy and wary to the last degree. Time after time I have followed up the call, only, as the result of a patient and noiseless stalk, to hear it give place to a harsh rasping alarm-note as the bird went off. When most successful, I got a hasty glimpse of the bird as it changed its whereabouts in the tree; a good leisurely view of it, never. But I learnt during these stalks that the call-note is merely thrown in as an accompaniment to a low chattering song, rather suggestive of the Starling. This song is not heard until one gets close to the performer, who whistles, sings, and squalls by turns. The Oriole was constantly to be heard in the Botanic Garden, and a pair of them doubtless bred there. In the latter half of July I frequently heard a rippling hawk-like call, which I supposed to be the note of the young. The male was in song up to Aug. 6th, on which date I heard all the different notes well.

A noteworthy feature in the forest was the scarcity of Wood Pigeons. In ten square miles of woodland there were fewer than in most English plantations of as many acres. Ants swarmed, and consequently Green Woodpeckers were numerous. Some of them were probably the grey-headed Gecinus canus, but I never identified it with certainty. Pied Woodpeckers preferred the more remote part of the forest. I was always on the look-out for Dendrocopus medius, but of the few which I saw at close quarters all appeared to be the Greater Spotted, D. major. The Wood Wren occurred sparingly in the forest, always where beech timber prevailed.

But birds were far less abundant in the forest than in the low-lying district round the mouth of the Sieg. Here, in poplars, was the only rookery which I met with, for while Carrion Crows were ubiquitous, Rooks were few and unobtrusive. In the woods Zool. 4th ser. vol. I. Feb. 1897.