Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/298

272 voyage out and back were many pairs of Puffins, which seemed to be making their way in couples to their nesting haunts, and a Tree-Pipit, which came on board in the middle of the bay half-way between Finisterre and Ushant on April 23rd. The sea was calm; the wind light, and from the north-east. The bird flew some way alongside of the ship before alighting in a ruffled, but not exhausted, state. In the English Channel small parties of Swallows were flying across, near above the water, and with great speed.— (16, Beaufort Gardens, S.W.).

With the Birds in May, 1901.—I can but very seldom take a holiday in May, but this year I was enabled to be absent from home for the month, and spent most of my spare time in observing the birds in and near the places I visited.

London and its Vicinity.—Here I visited some of the localities mentioned by Mr. Swan in his 'Birds of London' as likely to be fruitful, and found that Hadley Woods and Richmond Park were admirable hunting-grounds for the ornithologist.

Hadley Woods, between New Barnet and High Barnet, are 11½ miles from King's Cross, and in this delightful resort I found the Nightingale, Blackcap, Garden-Warbler, Willow-Warbler, Chiffchaff, Greater and Lesser Whitethroats, Whinchat, Spotted Flycatcher, Green Woodpecker, Long-tailed Tit, and many other birds less worthy of notice. Nightingales, Blackcaps, and Lesser Whitethroats were exceptionally numerous. I should think that nearly all our summer birds could be found in these delightful woods.

Wanstead Park and lakes will well repay a visit, and there too I heard the "three feathered kings of song"—the Nightingale, Blackcap, and Garden-Warblers; but the avifauna was not so rich as that of Hadley Woods.

At Richmond Park, I noted, in about three hours, thirty-four species, including Nightingale, Blackcap, Garden-Warbler, Wood-Warbler, Redstart, and Ray's Wagtail. This highly favoured locality will always repay a visit from the bird-lover, and, indeed, from any lover of nature. Windsor Castle was again plainly visible in the far distance.

My next visit was to that most delightful of all health resorts, Bournemouth, and there I found the lovely Talbot Woods full of bird-life. I have never heard the song, or rather songs, of the Wood-Warbler to such perfection as there. The Tree-Pipit also was much in evidence, and, what was very strange, I heard there a Chaffinch, which, after its three prefatory notes "fritz fritz fritz," sang the Willow-Warbler's song, and not its own.

At Christchurch, five miles from Bournemouth, I found many birds in a pleasant row down the River Stour towards Hengistbury Head. My list