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Mr. Allen Silver,



some considerable damage), the only occasions upon which I have

met with nightingales close in have been a case of a very wild

passing bird in April on the shady side of a common, and an

instance in which some few years ago (three) a friend of mine (an

old insectivorous bird-keeper who lived in a suburb with small

gardens running down to the line) caught two. Much to his

surprise he heard a migrant nightingale’s notes, and in a half¬

hearted way set an old nightingale-trap under the hedge, and in

due course caught both. One turned out an excellent songster next

season. This, of course, was an accident, hut in former years the

spot may have been good ground for the species. I have seen

autumn Common redstart and also a Black redstart within the

Sydenham district. In fact, a male in winter plumage in 1915

could be seen in a certain spot for weeks, and was known not only

to myself, but to a fellow bird-keeper who discovered it apart from

myself. Tw t o bird-catchers tried to catch it, but one made it trap-

shy,* and it moved on in due course. The Spotted flycatcher

I have noticed in May, and an old garden wall only recently pulled

down was evidently a site for the breeding pair, for later in that

season I saw the young being fed by parents there. I have never

seen a passing Pied flycatcher myself, but I saw alive and doing

well two immature birds that some years ago were caught with a

mealworm by a youth not far from Vincent Square, Westminster.

They were noticed at once by him, his father being a bird-

keeper, and he had no difficulty in attracting their attention to

the line.


Swallows, House martins, and Sand martins occur regularly

as passing migrants, and especially in autumn will feed over the

ponds, lakes, and streams in the suburbs. The former species,

however, seems to go out well as a breeder as does the latter, but

the House martin, like the swift, clings occasionally to eaves fairly

well in. These sites, however, are fast disappearing. Just a little

way out I have seen a passing Red-backed shrike alight on railway

wires. Turtle doves have made a quickly moving passage over

commons with trees to my knowledge, but I have never seen them



* Two other instances of this under review have also occurred.



