290 THE NATURALIST. 



Fort now stands, near Gosport. At Tetney they were common in April 

 and October for about a fortnight at each season, and seemed very much 

 at home in the marsh holts. Their flight is very discernible from that of 

 the blackbird at first sight, though performed by the same wing-motions. 

 But there is more of power and decision in it. And they are fond of 

 rising by small gyrations to a considerable height, and then going straight 



Robin. — The Misses Gilchrist at Sunbury had a tame robin, doubt- 

 less a female, which spent all its life with them, using the house as a 

 spaniel would ; it was rare'y absent from the breakfast table, and accom- 

 panied them in their walks, ]3erching on the hand at call. It died, an old 

 bird, on the night of Murphy's frost, which it was extremely unwilling 

 to face instead of the warm fireside. 



Whinchat. — About Egham is called the Utick from its note. It is 

 there as it is here and at Tetney, the commoner species. It came to 

 Alford early this year, April 11. The wheatear builds here, as it did at 

 Tetney. At the latter place I have seen five or six pairs at the breeding 

 season. 



Nightingale. — I heard one in 1854 or 1855 at Claxby, and to make 

 sure got out of the carriage and came close to it. A servant was also 

 present who was familiar with them in the south, and he w; s also sure. 

 I have never heard one here since. But one was heard this year in Long 

 Sutton by the rector, E. L. Bennett, whose early life was spent in their 

 chief resort, Thorpe, near Egham. 



Goldcrest. — Has been seen at Tetney and also here at Alford. 



Stockdove. — The woods near Beverley have them in numbers. I 

 have seen them in Grainsby, and I shot one in Tetney. I saw one the 

 other day near Peterborough. 



Turtle Dove. — Is common in Surrey, so much so as about Guild- 

 ford to be made a substantive article of sport. It builds at Sunbury near 

 houses. At Egham I have shot several of an evening. 



Quail. — Nested in Tetney in 1853. About 1836, in the autumn, a 

 labouring man of the name of I'hillipson, shot sixteen at a shot on the 

 shore, they had evidently just crossed the sea. 



Little Bustard. — One was shot in a field half-a-mile from my house, 

 in ihe parish of Bilsby, in the winter of 1855. It was stufted by a 

 man in Alford, and I wanted to procure it for the Lynn Museum, but the 

 owner would not part with it. 



