THE OOLOGIST 



95 



blance, by actions alone, to the Mead- 

 ow Lark here at home. Also I knew 

 the Rook. 



I was stationed at the Harling Road 

 Aerdrome in Norfolk county near Nor- 

 wich. This city of Norwich contained 

 a museum of Natural history of no 

 small collections. It was this museum 

 that I spent most of my spare time 

 while on leave there. This, with a 

 book 1 found one day in one of the 

 book stores of the town "Our Coun- 

 try's Birds" by W. J. Gordon, helped 

 me to identify most of the birds I met 

 with. 



For the sum of six shillings one 

 could rent a bicycle for a week and 

 after Retreat on clear evenings we 

 were given permission to ride about 

 the country. It was on rides like 

 these out into the less populated dis- 

 tricts that I met with the Night-jars. 

 Resembling the flight of the Night 

 Hawk is their wing motions, though 

 I never saw one flying at a very great 

 height and they are silent save for an 

 occasionally twittering sound uttered 

 as they flutter about in the dusk for 

 insects. From the fields, as the even- 

 ings drew on, the voice of the Corn 

 Crake was to be heard. It was a hard 

 matter to get a good view of these 

 birds for they kept pretty low, though 

 if one was silent behind a cover of 

 some sort, for a period, they aften- 

 times came near. I asked an old 

 farmer, one evening, before I had 

 identified the birds, what they were 

 and was told they were Curlews. I 

 heard and saw several owls on these 

 trips, but the light was usually so 

 poor by the time these birds came out 

 to fly that identification was impos- 

 sible for me. 



I oftentimes saw and heard Sky 

 Larks in the early mornings and even- 

 ings. Very common was tlie Bull 

 Finch and House Sparrows. 



In the hawthorne hedges about the 



Aerdrome I saw British Long-tailed 

 Tits and its relative the Blue Tit. This 

 last is a very pretty bird and its an- 

 tics remind one of the Crested Tit or 

 the Chickadee at home. Quite often I 

 saw the true Robin (Erithacus rube- 

 cula). 



The several species of woodpeckers 

 are listed to be found in England, I 

 saw not one single specimen. Every- 

 where the Pheasant (Phasianus col- 

 chicus) was abundant. Though pro- 

 tected by law, not infrequently these 

 birds "got in the way" of a machine- 

 gun bullet and made "swell" eats for 

 the Yanks. 



Nearly every stream had one or 

 more Moor Hens upon its surface and 

 many times I have seen fiocks of Lap- 

 wings on the freshly plowed grounds. 



My stay in England lasted from 

 August 20 to December 1st, 1918. We 

 boarded the Empress of Britian at 

 Liverpool for "God's Country," Dec. 

 first. The Gulls of Liverpool followed 

 us out past the coast of Wales and 

 when darkness was falling they were 

 still with us though we had been mov- 

 ing for seven hours. Morning found 

 us tossing upon a very rough sea with 

 no Gulls in sight. 



Thus closes the account of the birds 

 I met with while in England. 



Ralph J. Donahue, 

 Bonner Springs, Kansas. 

 May 6, 1919 



We will commence in the July issue 

 publishing a wonderfully interesting 

 article by J. N. Munro, on "Collecting 

 in British Columbia." This is accom- 

 panied by splendid illustrations and 

 will run through several issues. 



We Are Short of Copy: See! 



IJ^Send in some forthwith. This 

 means everyone. Thanks in advance. 

 Very urgent.'^d 



The Editor. 



