74 



Bird Notes and News 



Notes on some Summer Migrants. 



[These notes are extracts from the Essay 

 by C. C. Baring, of Haileybury College, who 

 won the Silver Medal in the R.S.P.B. Public 

 School Competition, 1914, the subject being 



" Our Summer Migrants." Altogether the 

 Essayist observed twenty-nine species, and 

 he gives a list of these, with dates when first 

 seen in spring and notes as to their frequency 



n the districts of Haileybury and Sudbury, 

 where his observations were made. Sudbury, 

 he remarks, is not a good place for observing 

 migrants : they arrive late, and not many 

 different kinds come, and no casual migrants ; 

 but it has the Yellow Wagtail, Wryneck, and 

 Common Sandpiper. Haileybury is an ex- 

 cellent district for observing the Warblers, 

 and the River Lea for noting Warblers in 

 passage. One noticeable gap in the avifauna 

 of both districts in 1914 was caused by the 

 absence of Corncrakes.] 



Nightingale. 



The first Nightingale's nest I ever found 

 was in some woods near Brundall, in Norfolk. 

 I was delighted at the discovery, for if I had 

 not seen the bird fly off I should never have 

 seen the nest and eggs, so wonderfully did 

 they harmonise with their surroundings. 

 In 1913 I found a nest of young Nightingales. 

 I saw the parent birds hovering about, with 

 food in their beaks, in a very agitated state 

 at my intrusion. I withdrew behind a 

 tree, and presently the cock bird flew down 

 to a clump of nettles by the side of the 

 lane. The hen bird had dropped her catch 

 in her extreme anxiety, and was still too 

 frightened to fly away and get more. I 

 went to the nettles and found a nest of 

 five nearly fully-fledged young birds, which 

 a few days later safely left the nest. On 

 May 6th of this year (1914) I found a 

 Nightingale's nest ; two days later it had 

 one egg in, but the next day it was 

 robbed. The same day I and my brother 

 found another nest with five eggs in ; it 



also was robbed. A few days later a friend 

 of mine found one with six eggs ; it too 

 was robbed. I was much upset at such 

 insensate cruelty. It was heartrending to 

 hear the Nightingales singing after this ; I 

 do not consider the Nightingale's song as a 

 rule a sad one, but it was then. 



Afterwards I examined one of the robbed 

 nests. It was wonderfully made ; about 

 350 leaves were used in its composition, 

 besides dry grass and fibres. There were 

 ten hornbeam leaves, two elm, and one 

 service-tree leaf, the rest being oak. I think 

 the Nightingale is on the increase in both the 

 Sudbury and the Haileybury districts, and 

 I sincerely hope this may continue to be so. 



The Wood-Wren. 



I heard the Wood- Warbler, or Wood- 

 Wren, for the first time this year on May 17th, 

 not far from Haileybury. One came quite 

 near to me and settled on a branch and I 

 got a lovely view of it. It is whiter under- 

 neath than the Chiffchaff and Willow- Wren, 

 and is also larger than they are. Very often 

 it started its song in the air and finished the 

 louder part on the nearest branch. Besides 

 two or three pairs at this particular haunt 

 I heard some at Epping Forest, though not 

 many even there. At Sudbury I have never 

 seen or heard it. I wish this delightful bird 

 was commoner ; there is no reason why it 

 should not be, but it does not seem to like 

 extending its range, and remains in its 

 own favoured haunts. 



The Reed-Warbler. 



I did not see any Reed-Warblers until 

 May 7th, when I went to a swampy place 

 by the River Lea. Three or four pairs were 

 singing vigorously, preening themselves, and 

 clinging to the reeds, head downwards, in 

 the most charming manner. A week or 

 two later I found two nests in the same place, 

 one with four eggs, the other with five. 

 They were the most beautiful nests imagin- 

 able, suspended between two or three reed 

 stems. 1 had never found a Reed- Warbler's 

 nest since I lived in the Broad district of 

 Norfolk, where there were numbers. 



