Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/45

Rh big as a threepenny-bit in the bottom of the nest (vide 1898, p 357). The second nest was supported by two stems of meadow-sweet (a third stem was only attached to the nest slightly). It had very well developed "handles" coming up high above the general level of the walls. The walls were entirely of dead grass, and the lining of horsehair. The third nest was supported by two stems of meadow-sweet and one of osier. The "handles" were well defined, but slight and small. Walls of dead grass; lining of horsehair. The three sets of eggs were each of a different type, though the individual eggs in the clutches resembled one another. Mr. Fowler has presented the first nest, with the Cuckoo's egg, to the Oxford Museum.

29th.—Mr. Fowler and I saw a male Red-backed Shrike and an impaled Bumble Bee near Lower Tadmarton.

July 2nd.—Cuckoo singing full and well this morning; heard from the garden.

4th.—Two Cuckoos still in full song, one at the back of the garden, the other near South Newington.

5th.—Cuckoo still in full song. Starlings very destructive to my neighbour's ripe cherries. Weather dry.

6th.—The Lesser Whitethroat may be heard not uncommonly singing in this and other gardens in the village throughout its period of song. It is much more of a garden bird than the Greater Whitethroat, which only appears in the village and about gardens on its first arrival (and that very rarely), and again (commonly) in the bush-fruit season. Lesser Whitethroat is indeed an unfortunate and, in some respects, a misleading name. The habit of this species of frequenting gardens, rather than open spots like the Whitethroat, was remarked upon by Edward Blyth sixty years ago, as well as by Herbert at a rather earlier date.

9th.—A Cuckoo in full song all the morning in the fields at the back of this garden. The old idea locally is that the Cuckoo's voice becomes broken when it can no longer get little birds' eggs to wet its throat with; hence it changes its tune in June. An ingenious man once suggested, to account for a Cuckoo singing in July, that each bird has a certain number of cuckoos, to get through, and if he had not finished them by the usual time he had to go on after the other birds had finished!

15th,—Very dry weather. Starlings, Blackbirds, Song