208 W. BICKEBTON NOTES ON BIEDS 



a l)ramhle qiiite on the ground in Batch Wood. I may add also 

 that one of my gamekeeper friends tells me that it is quite a 

 common occurrence to find thiiishes' nests (and also blackbirds') 

 on the grotmd. Since writing the above, Dr. Hartert (Tring) 

 reports that : "In the reeds on the reservoirs several thrushes' 

 nests were found a few inches above the ground." 



Mr. Hopkinsou sends a note (taken from the ' Hertfordshire 

 Mercvu-y ') to the effect that in a secluded part of a garden at 

 Braughing there was a thrush's nest in which four young ones 

 were hatched out as early as March 17th. 



With regard to the fieldfares {Turdus pilaris) and redwings 

 (T. iliacus), it is pleasant to hear from Mr. Headley that, in the 

 early months of 1906, the latter, contrary to the ahnost general 

 experience of recent years, were more numerous than the former. 

 This was not the case in the Watford district, where fieldfares 

 always greatly outnumlier their smaller companions. I saw, and 

 heard, a small party of fieldfares near Miuiden so late as April 

 29th — the latest date I have ever met ^dth this species. Coming 

 to the close of the year, there was about the usual number of 

 these two immigrant species until just before and during the 

 time of the great snowstorm of December 25th and 26th. Then 

 they appeared in the Colne Valley in extraordinary numbers, and 

 on the morning of Deceml^er 26th I saw large flocks of them 

 coming down the valley from N.E., and heading off S.W., being 

 apparently driven onwards by that memorable storm. Reports 

 from many parts of the country showed that this great south- 

 westerly movement of redwings, fieldfares, and other small birds 

 at the time of the great storm, was one of the most extraordinary 

 bird movements which has been witnessed witliin recent times in 

 the British Isles. Mr. A. H. Foster, of Hitchin, reports an 

 albino fieldfare, shot at High Dovni, near Hitchin. 



Wlieatear {Saxicola cenanthe).- — I only saw one specimen of 

 this bird, and that was near Croxley Mills, on April 8th. 

 Mr. G. M. Mathews, F.L.S., reports a party of eight, also seen 

 early in April, near Watford, and Mr. A. Grey reports one at 

 St. Albans on March 27th. 



Stonechat (Pratincola rubicola). — Last year I reported that 

 I had found the nest of the stonechat near Watford in 1905. 

 I have found what appears to be the same pair of birds nesting 

 again in 1906, and, strange to say, the 1906 nest was within two 

 feet of the nesting- site of 1905, although between the nesting- 

 time of 1905 and that of 1906 I never saw any stonechats in 

 that locaHty. I first found my 1906 nest on March 15th, when 

 it appeared to be about half -built. On March 19th the nest was 

 lined with hair, and apparently completed, though it contained 

 no eggs. On the 23rd there were two eggs in it, and the 

 following note taken from my rough notebook on this date adds 

 a point of interest : — " I might note that it has snowed several 

 times to-day, and that a Hght snow was falling as I stood by the 

 stonechat's nest and fetched out the eggs." On March 26th the 



