Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/186

160 Alcedo ispida.—One crossed the Meuse with a silvery fish crosswise in its bill.

Cuculus canorus.—Common. On one occasion three in close company crossed a road leading through a wood.

Syrnium aluco.—The remains of one lay by the roadside in a wood.

Athene noctua.—On two occasions I heard what I believe was the note of this bird, in woods.

Buteo vulgaris.—In the Forest of Ardenne I watched one soar up out of sight; saw another mobbed by Crows, and heard the wailing cry on two occasions.

Columba palumbus.—Strangely scarce; two only seen flying along wooded heights across the river.

C. œnas.—One in the distance flying along a wooded slope at Houyet.

C. livia.—I saw a bird exactly resembling a wild Rock Dove about some river cliffs far from any (visible) house.

Turtur communis.—Several in woods.

Phasianus colchicus.—Heard several times in the Bois du Séminaire and the Forest of Ardenne.

Perdix cinerea.—I saw birds twice, once on the high ground at the back of Dinant, and again near Sommière.

Coturnix communis.—I heard a Quail calling from a field gay and sweet with sainfoin and yellow trefoil on the high-lying arable land above Bouvigne.

Ægialitis hiaticula?.—I saw a bird flying in the distance over the pools at Givet, which appeared to be a RRinged Plover.

From the 10th to the 14th of June I was at Mechelen, in the flat rich Flemish country. I made a list of the birds I saw, and it may be worth giving shortly. Those species marked with an asterisk were not met with about Dinant. The sandy land around Mechelen is very highly cultivated, and corn-fields, varied by many acres devoted to the cultivation of asparagus and other vegetables for the great marché of Mechelen, stretch away as far as the eye can see. But the country is well wooded with lines of poplars and plantations. There are grass marshes along the tidal, embanked Dyle and elsewhere, and willow and alder along the drains. But the country is densely populated, and a few