LOCAL OBSERVATION 23 



unwilling to desert their friends the peewits. We 

 have fine weather, with bright sun, but bitterly cold 

 winds. 



" I hear that the damage done by the hurricane in 

 Norfolk is a thousand times worse than here, and it is 

 woeful enough here. 



" If your goosanders are not mergansers, do all you 

 can to find a nest, as but few have been found in Great 

 Britain. The mergansers breed in all suitable localities in 

 the Highlands. 



" The first pheasant's egg in the pens yesterday ; but 

 there have been ' wild ' ones for the last week or more. 



" Siskins ought to nest on Speyside. 



" The Bough ton keeper tells me of a sparrow-hawk 

 taking a woodcock there on the 9th." ' 



"May 6M, 1895. 

 " A pair of herons built a big nest in Piper's spinney 

 just above Braunsea bridge, but they have not yet laid ! 

 Well-regulated herons have young on wing before this. 

 The last arrival in spring birds was a turtle-dove on the 

 3rd. All others are in except butcher bird, hobby and 

 nightjar. There are no end of nightingales ; very few 

 song thrushes ; numerous corncrakes ; a good sprinkling 

 of cuckoos, tree pipits, chifFchafFs ; and more wood 

 warblers than I ever knew of before."^ 



1 To Walter M. Stopford, Esq. 

 ^ To the same. 



