21 
June 29th. A Great Spotted Woodpecker’s nest with young, in an oak tree. 
This day we saw a young Cuckoo leave his home (Meadow Pipit’s nest) 
for the first time. 
June 30th. Young Cuckoo left the nest to-day (Pied Wagtail). There has 
been a Cuckoo hatched in a Pied Wagtail’s nest at this spot for three 
years’ in succession, to my knowledge. 
July 3rd. We visited a Meadow Pipit’s nest that on June ist contained 
four Pipit’s eggs and one also of a Cuckoo. Naturally, to-day, we 
expected to see a young Cuckoo, but instead found four young Pipits 
in the nest nearly ready to leave, but there was no Cuckoo. Remember- 
ing a certain similar experience last year (this was recorded in my 
notes to the Society, in 1912), I searched carefully for the Cuckoo’s 
egg, and there it was! lying intact about 15 inches away from the 
Pipit’s nest. When the nest was first found the Cuckoo’s egg was in it 
and to all appearance the Meadow Pipit was sitting. No one visited the 
nest until I went subsequently and found the egg on the ground. This 
is my third experience of this extraordinary occurrence. 
July 28th. Grasshopper Warbler “reeling.” I listened to it for some 
time; this was at 10-30 p.m. I heard it again at the same hour when 
passing on the 30th. ; 
August 17th. Night Jars heard every evening of the week. I saw a mouse, 
possibly Mus flavicollis, playing in the masonry of the Railway Bridge. 
I watched it for some time. 
November 22nd. Herons busy in the Forest brooks at this season. 
_ November. Immense flocks of Starlings in the Reed Beds at Hatchmere. 
Until the reeds were broken these birds roosted here in great companies. 
February 6th. A pair of Stone Chats on Linmere Nursery. Only occa- 
sionally are these birds seen in the Forest and always in winter. The 
hen is very tame, keeping within a few yards of the men as they work 
lifting young plants. The cock is very shy. 
The usual troops of Tits have wandered through the Forest this winter, 
and still seen to-day, February 16th. On the whole I think last season was 
a good one for birds, and the numbers were up to the average. Something 
must, however, have happened in the case of the Martins on passage. 
During a tour of some of the German Forests in September, with the 
Royal English Arboricultural Society, we saw in the Frankfort Town 
Forest some enclosed areas where birds are fed and protected; it being 
recognised that birds are great friends of the Forester. Like most things 
in Germany, everything was done on the most thorough system. Here one 
could see nesting boxes of all descriptions, feeding houses, and drinking 
fountains, made so that they could be heated in the winter, various kinds 
of traps, and other numerous contrivances. The sanctuary was complete 
with everything except the birds, which at that season were probably at 
the borders of the Forest on the agricultural districts. Throughout the 
tour I was greatly struck by the scarcity of all kinds of birds, so few did 
we see. My list comprises Great Spotted Woodpecker (several), Chaffinches, 
Rooks, Tit Mice, Wren, Carrion Crows, Buzzards (very common), 
Grey Wagtails, in Black Forest; and Dippers, Pied Wagtails, Swallows, 
Tree Creepers, Jays and Starlings. 
In Bavaria and the Black Forest most of the Houses had a nesting box 
for Starlings (on the upper storey), all of the same pattern, with a pitched 
roof and a resting perch. 
The Buzzard is one of the most useful Birds, keeping the Forests clear 
of mice, which would otherwise do a great deal of damage to young planta- 
tions and sowings. 
February, 1914. A. SAvNDERs. 
