54 W. BICKERTON — NOTES ON BIRDS 



during my bird- watching experiences, and although it happened 

 so long ago as 1900 I think it is well worth recording. About 

 the end of May in that year I was returning from Bricket Wood 

 to Watford along the high road via G-arston. Almost exactly 

 opposite the little Post Office in the last-named village, a footpath 

 branches off from the high road across the fields to Bricket 

 Wood, and not many yards from the little gate which gives 

 access to this footpath a large oak-tree grows in the roadside 

 hedge. This tree bears the usual minatory notice-l)oard inti- 

 mating that " trespassers will be prosecuted." While stopping 

 to rest at the gate I saw a little bird with something in its Ijeak 

 glance down from the foliage above, alight on the top of the 

 notice-board, look round for an instant (not at the inscription, 

 however), and then disappear into the narrow space between the 

 board and the trunk of the tree. In a moment he was out again 

 and up among the branches. A second bird came, alighted on 

 the board, disappeared behind it, and likewise emerged again 

 a moment later to fly aloft. For the moment I covdd scarcely 

 believe my eyes, but further watching showed that the per- 

 formance was again and again I'epeated, now by the one and now 

 by the other of the two birds. I settled down to watch the 

 proceedings, and, timing them with my watch, I found that 

 the two birds paid no less than 42 visits " behind the scenes " 

 in 47 minutes. They were a pair of tree-creepers, and they had 

 actually had the audacity to l)uild their nest behind that notice- 

 board ! In spite of their cramped position, and the awe-inspiring 

 threat behind which they were living, the young l>irds seemed 

 thriving and blessed with good appetites, which their parents 

 were doing their best to satisfy. As to the said parents, 

 I scarcely knew which to marvel at most — their intelligent 

 knowledge of letters and the astute purpose to which they had 

 turned it, or their open contempt for the law of the woodland. 



Yellow Wagtail (MotaciUa rail). — This bird has been extremely 

 plentifvU in all parts of the Colne Valley during the past summer. 

 I do not rememl)er seeing such relatively large nximbers in any 

 former year. It seemed to be nesting in the water-meadows all 

 the way along the valley. After prolonged search, I succeeded 

 in finding a couple of nests on the same day and in the same 

 enclosure. Each contained five eggs. 



Swallow (Hlnindo riisfica). — The following letter from Lady 

 Prances Busliby appeared in the ' Hertfordshire Mercury ' of 

 11th November, 1905 : — " In a letter in your issue of the 4th 

 inst., Mr. Waller, of Villiers Street, Hertford, mentions having 

 seen swallows on the wing on November 1st, and he asks for 

 the experience of other observers as to the late appearance of 

 these birds in Hertfordshire. Looking back to some notes made 

 many years ago at Wormley Bui'y, near Broxboiu'ne, I find that 

 I saw several swallows there on 14th November, 1880, after 

 which day they were not seen again. In the same place, on 

 loth November, 1883, during a bright sunny interval following 



