262 A Few Notes on Bird Life^ &c. [Sess. 



is, the croaking of frogs — except that if you stand beside a 

 pond where a concert of these creatures is taking place, you 

 find they do not all croak in the same key, and therefore there 

 is a certain want of harmony, while the low murmur of the 

 turtle is always pleasing. I was not aware till recently that 

 this bird often builds very near the ground. I saw a nest 

 last year in a thick hedge not higher than five feet ; and I 

 see that the Eev. Eichard Lubbock, author of ' The Fauna of 

 Norfolk,' calls attention to this habit, saying, " It is content 

 to place its nest much nearer the ground and in a much 

 smaller tree than the ring-dove affects." The turtle is readily 

 distinguished in its flight from all the other Columbida3 by the 

 white tips to all the tail-feathers : when the bird spreads out 

 its tail on settling, this white line is very conspicuous. The 

 most common bird about the house in the summer is the fly- 

 catcher : there are always several nests of them in the garden. 

 Magpies strut about in the fields near the house as though the 

 place belonged to them ; and so it does, as far as all usufruct 

 goes, for they are not interfered with. Willow-warblers, 

 chiffchaffs, garden - warblers, four species of tit, and most 

 other common birds, abound ; and a very favourite bird with 

 my friend is the blackcap, whose song is inferior only to that 

 of the nightingale. I saw a blackcap in the garden last year 

 making a hearty meal on the ripe red berries of the honey- 

 suckle. I am sorry to say the nightingale is seldom heard 

 there now, though some years ago, when I lived on the adjoin- 

 ing property, one reared three young birds in my garden, and 

 I well remember that the nest was made almost exclusively 

 of bits of matting used by gardeners for tying up trees. I 

 gave the nest, after the young birds had flown, to our surgeon, 

 Mr Troughton — the gentleman mentioned by Mr S. Grieve in 

 his book, ' The Great Auk or Garefowl ' — who wished to have 

 it for his collection. The little tree-creeper had her nest 

 behind an ivy bough growing up one of my friend's avenue 

 trees. I stood close to her as she passed in several times 

 with food for her young : this seemed to consist mainly of 

 small black flies. The long-tailed tit had her beautiful 

 domed nest in a hedge within twenty yards of the front door. 

 But the birds to which I propose to direct your attention by 

 a few remarks this evening are the gold-crested regulus, the 



