ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM DERBYSHIRE. 1 25 



low-lying pastures of the lower Dove valley until the present 

 year. For the next three or four days we noticed several small 

 parties of these birds in the same field, and once in another 

 ploughed field on the opposite side of the road, but nowhere 

 else. 



On the 28th three Wild Swans were seen by a local farmer, 

 near the Dove, and on April 2nd a small herd of five birds 

 came flying down the Henmore valley. Two of them pitched 

 in the river Dove below Birdsgrove, the other three 

 flew on towards Calwich. Mr. J. Henderson, who was the first 

 to notice them, thought they were Whoopers, Cygmis nmsicus 

 (Bechst.), and after examining two through the glass, I came 

 to the same conclusion. Unfortunately they were driven off 

 by a man who mistook them for ordinarj- Mute Swans, and 

 set out to capture them with a landing net and some sopped 

 bread ! It is almost unnecessary to add that the swans did 

 not await his arrival, but took wing while he was still some 

 distance away. 



On April 7th we noticed the arrival of a party of six Sand 

 Martins at a quarry on Cannock Chase, and the same evening 

 three more were seen at Clifton. During the latter half of 

 April and the early part of May I was on the Continent, 

 and on my return found that all the summer migrants had 

 arrived, and nesting was in full swing. On the whole, the 

 spring was decidedly late and everjthing verj' backward, but 

 the summer was wonderfully fine and hot, and the rainfall 

 much below the average. 



Thanks to the provision of nesting boxes affixed to the trees. 

 Great Tits have increased in numbers in my own garden, and 

 this year we had four boxes occupied by them, from which 

 over thirty young were reared. 



While returning from looking at a Snipe's nest with two 

 eggs on May 28th, we flushed a Tree Pipit from a nest vdth 

 four eggs, in the evening. For quite six or seven yards she 

 tumbled along the ground, looking in the dusk more like a 

 frog than a bird, till at last she took wang. I have seen a 



