JEANS ON BRITISH BIRDS. 259 



Hooks. — Can and do work on moonlight nights in nesting time. So do 

 Carrion crows, but they do not caw near their nests. Indeed it is difficult 

 to perceive whether a crow's nest is inhabited. I had one in ray garden 

 (1847) and another within 100 yards of it, and yet I rarely saw or heard 

 any of the parents near either, though they had young. I once saw a rook 

 flying about with two white feathers in his tail. This I believe is not 

 uncommon. But Mr. W. Mason, of Eigsby, shot one all of a brown 

 colour, *' like a sparrow," as he expressed it. 



Maqpte. — Hawks at small birds. One nearly caught a pied wagtail 

 by repeated stoops, after the manner of a falcon, over my garden at Tet- 

 ney. The quarry eventually escaped but was nearly dead with fear, and 

 probably my presence saved it. Magpies build several nests before they 

 are suited. 



Blue Tit. — October 10th, 1839, I found a nest of newly fledged 

 birds, in the Blow Well Holt, Tetney, 



Waxwing. — A flock passed over my house at Tetney, close to me, in 

 the winter of about 1852. Two of them were shot the same day by the 

 Rev. W. Johnson, of Grainsby. The Rev. J. Allott, of Maltby, has killed 

 them there, and has two preserved. One was killed near here also by a 

 carpenter, and is stuffed. 



Wryneck. — Heard and saw one at Yarburgh, near Louth, June 5 th, 

 1840. Heard one in my own garden, at Tetney, May 7th, 1844. Heard 

 one at Waltham, about the same time as the above. Heard one near 

 my own garden, at Alford, 1861, when my gardener (formerly a game- 

 keeper) heard it too. 



Creeper. — Frequents my garden, at Alford, and is often seen in the 

 depth of winter. 



Great Spotted Woodpecker. — I once chased one for a whole day 

 along the banks of the Thames, near Chertsey, in Surrey, but could not 

 get a shot. 



CucKoo.^ — May 23rd, 1847. Cuckoo very loquacious near the house 

 for a long time, at 2-30 a.m. ; moonlight. 



Swallow. — George Alington, Esq., caught a pike in a pond, at 

 Humberstone, in 1836 ; in the stomach of which were the feathers of a 

 swallow, which it had doubtless seized as it bathed on the wing. 



Martin.— November 11th, 1838, and October 30th, 1839. A house 

 martin was on each occasion hawking briskly after flies in the same place 

 in Humberstone. In 1860, at the beginning of November, there were 

 five flying about my garden, at Alford, 



