342 Arrival of British Summer Birds, 



13tb. A cuckoo was heard.* 



14th. Yellow field wagtails (Budytes flava, or better, 

 perhaps, flavissima) were seen, and the next morning these 

 were very plentiful. I once had the gratification of seeing a 

 small flock of these birds arrive from the sea, early one morn- 

 ing in September, while shooting seafowl in the Isle of Jersey, 

 They were of this species, and not the nearly allied one lately 

 detected by Mr. Gould, and had probably crossed from the 

 south-western coast of England, f 



15th. House martins and chimney swallows were skim- 

 ming over the meadows by the river Wandle. A redstart 

 was heard. 



16th. Redstarts plentiful. 



17th. Several cuckoos were about; and the nightingale 

 was heard here for the first time in the season, being the 

 same day on which I first noticed it last year. 



18th. Whinchats arrived ; a reed warbler (*Salicaria arun- 

 dinacea) was shot; and I was told that a garden fauvette 

 (Curruca hortensis) had been heard. Redwings and field- 

 fares were still abundant, but from this time their numbers 

 rapidly decreased. 



19th. Several whitethroats made their appearance, and on 

 the following day these were very plentiful. 



20th. I saw a grey flycatcher (Muscicapa Grisola): this 

 being about ten days before the usual period of its first 

 appearance* 



* [The cuckoo was first heard at Parkstone, near Poole [Dorsetshire], 

 on April 18. 1834 : it came on the same day in 1833; and I am told by 

 persons who are observant, that it always returns, and is first heard 

 at Parkstone, about that day. One cuckoo, last year, which haunted 

 my garden, was known by its voice : it was cracked; and the bird, during 

 its twelve weeks* stay, never recovered its hoarseness ; it could only cry, 

 cuck, cuck. I have ascertained that this bird has not returned, or 

 else has made good use of its winter holidays in learning to speak plain. 

 The cuckoo left us last year on July 8. Which way does this bii-d retreat ? 

 I have heard its note very often between Bruges and Ghent, so late as the 

 end of July : especially, also, near Ostend. — W. B. Clarke, May 19. 1834'. 



One of the patrol in Kensington Gardens has told me that the cuckoo 

 was heard in these gardens on April 21.; I saw one there on April 27. 



—j.b:\ 



[f Wagtails arrived at Stanley Green [Dorsetshire] on March 6. These 

 birds built last year in a small brick island, covered with shrubs, in a fish- 

 pond in my orchard. At least ten pairs left us in October ; two only have 

 returned. They have not built there this spring, as the gardener has 

 cleared away the weeds, &c. ; and the birds seem alarmed. W. B. Clarke. 

 May 19. 1834. — We have appended this observation, because, although 

 Mr. Clarke has not stated the species, it would seem to be not the common 

 resident one ; and because it is so clear an illustration of the remark by 

 Mr. Waterton, in VI. 312. ; namely, the means of " food, and a quiet 

 retreat, are the two best offers that man can make to the feathered race, to 

 induce them to take up their abode on his domain."] 



