22 



Bird Notes and News 



U 



In a Cheshire Garden." 



The Rev, G. Egerton-Warburton, author 

 of "In a Cheshire Garden " sends the 

 following further notes to Bird Notes and 

 News : — 



" There is in our garden, close to the 

 carriage-drive, a plantaiion of tall hollies, 

 chestnuts, and rhododendrons to which every 

 evening during August and September, 1914, 

 great numbers of Starlings came to roost. 

 The different flocks, some containing more 

 than a hundred birds, used to arrive from 

 every direction, and at first alighted on the 

 taller trees in the garden, but all in the end 

 settled down to roost in this one plantation. 

 They kept arriving at intervals from half 

 past six until it was nearly dark, in September 

 they began to come at half-past five, and by 

 the time they were all here it would, I think, 

 be no exaggeration to say that there were 

 thousands of birds in this one small clump 

 of trees and shrubs. 



" For about an hour or so before composing 

 themselves to sleep they would chatter 

 together, and the noise they made was quite 

 extraordinary and could be heard a long 

 way off. 



" This nightly concourse of Starlings went 

 on until September 22nd, when the numbers 

 and the noise seemed greater than ever, but 

 the curious thing is that the next night, 

 September 23rd, as far as I could tell, not 

 one single Starling was there, not one out 

 of all the hundreds or thousands that had 

 come to roost in this plantation every evening 

 for two months, and none ever came again 

 to my knowledge for the rest of the year ! 



" One evening in July, 1915, a small flock 

 of about thirty came, but only that once as 

 far as I know ; I never saw any come again. 



" In May and June, 1915, it was quite a 

 common thing to hear the drumming of a 

 Snipe as we sat in the garden and to see him 

 flying round and romid at a great height, 

 and this at almost any time of the day ; 

 sometimes even when it was getting dark we 

 could hear the sound. One day towards the 



end of June I caught sight of a Snipe on the 

 open ground in the old river-bed where the 

 grass had been eaten down by cattle, and I 

 watched it for a good while tln-ough a glass. 

 It was sitting close on the ground with its 

 back to me, and I could see plainly the mark- 

 ings of every feather. Whilst I was looking 

 it never moved, and after I had gone away 

 for a few minutes and had come back again 

 it was still there but in an altered position, 

 still sitting close to the ground but showing 

 a side view, and through the glass its large 

 black eye appeared to be watching me. 

 I left once more for a short time, and when 

 I looked again it was still there, but standing 

 up, and as long as I watched it never stirred, 

 but all the while another Snipe that I could 

 not see, its mate I suppose, kept repeating its 

 ' chuck, chuck ' kind of note. There was 

 no trace of a nest where the Snipe had been, 

 nor did I ever notice a Snipe again in the 

 same place. No doubt there must have 

 been a nest somewhere about, probably in 

 the rougher, wetter part of the river-bed. 

 The drumming and flight were continued 

 every day for a week or so longer. 



"On the 10th of June last year (1915) 

 I was on the high road between Colwyn Bay 

 and Llandulas, when in a belt of trees only 

 separated from the path by a stone wall, 

 I saw the interesting sight of a pair of Tree- 

 Creepers feeding two young ones. The very 

 short time it took them to find food especially 

 struck me, they seemed without searching 

 about for it to find something directly 

 they lighted on a tree and to be back 

 with it again, one could almost say, in a 

 moment. 



" The young ones stuck flat against the 

 stem of the tree they were on, not moving 

 about or doing anything for themselves. 



" Although the plantation was close to 

 the wall, the birds not only were quite in- 

 different to me as I stood there watching 

 them, but they took no notice at all of the 

 traffic on the road, although there was an 

 almost continuous procession of motors." 



