THE IS^OTEBOOK OF A CITY NATUKALIST. 4^ 



From the Bridge we can see swail<Dws in plenty, and 

 honse-martins, also sand-martins that build in the retaining 

 bank at the back of Bridge Street; here also bats may be 

 watched in their beantifiil flight, so different in character 

 from that of birds. 



Proceeding down Victoria Street, we notice jackdaws^ 

 pigeons, starlings, and house-sparrows nesting in the towers 

 of St. Thomas' and the Temple Chnreh, and also rooks on 

 their way to Queen Square, and at the Orosvenor Hotel we 

 stop to listen to the cheery note of the cuckoo. Arrived at 

 Bath Bridge I ask jou. to notice, on the bank to our right, a 

 small flock, seven or eight redwing and fieldfares, scratching 

 over the dust-heaps thrown within ten yai'ds of the Bridge 

 on to the snow tipped over th-e rails. This note was made at 

 11 o'clock in the morning upon a great market day in '89 (I 

 believe my date is correct) . 



In the artificial bed of the river may be seen a salmon 

 occasionally, more often suffocated by mud than alive ; and 

 opposite the lock gates to our left might be seen a por- 

 poise, — one was seen by a man who w^ll remembers it, but 

 it was before I took notes. 



On the right-hand side of the road, by the Three Lamps, 

 there is a colony of sand-martins, and a-t the cemetery gates 

 their cousins the house-martins and swallows are in evi- 

 dence. 



If you will tak'e a peep " ov^er the garden wall "* at Arno's 

 Vale, down upon the ground you will see busily occupied 

 among the beech leaves three nuthatches, and we watch 

 one of them fly up with its booty ; we also notice the 

 golden-crested wr-en busy in the cedar where it nested a 

 few years ago. In the corner of the market garden, on the 

 left of Sandy Lane^ we see a nnmber of young birds, some 

 still being fed by their parents, and distinguish among many 



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