THE NOTEBOOK OF A CITY NATURALIST. 51 



sandpiper. Here I used to see our spring visitors as early 

 as anywhere, and repeatedly I have seen young cuckoos in 

 a hedge, where now is a long row of inhabited houses. 



Magpies and crows' nests are to be seen from this lane, 

 and in the alders by the Malago Street we have noticed a 

 flock of siskins busily feeding. 



Proceeding next into Bedminster over Merrywood down 

 towards Ashtongate, I would call your attention to a flock of 

 starlings, about whose evolutions (in the air) there have 

 been sundry letters in the papers ; thirty or forty birds are 

 dashing about in all directions, wheeling suddenly, darting 

 upwards, perpendicularly, and as suddenly shooting down- 

 wards, crossing and recrossing as they slowly maintain an 

 onward course. Noticing where this procession crossed the 

 main road, we notice bruised and broken ants in large 

 numbers, and as the birds get clear of a belt of trees, so 

 that there is a clear sky behind them, we can see that there 

 is a dense column of ants, still being fed upon as it flies 

 onwards without guidance, directed only by the light 

 breeze, and without any chance or the power of efl^ort at 

 escape. 



Where is the " intelligence " of the ant ? 



They can avoid a train, when the rails have worked loose, 

 by going under instead of over the rails ! Marvellous in- 

 telligence ! 



Continuing our walk, we cross the Park to the Avon and 

 see a large variety of gulls and terns, and also the ringed 

 plover; and opposite the Powder House one September 

 morning, when a passenger on a steamer for Ilfracombe, 1 

 saw a cormorant rise from the water. 



Returning again up Coronation Road, we look at the 

 Board Schools recently finished at Southville ; while in 

 process of building I saw a small flight of brown birds 



