210 THE BIRDS OF OXFOEDSHIEE. 



the average date of my own observation of it has been the 27th 

 or 28th. The earhest date is the 20th, in 1883. 



The Wryneck (p. 121). It is most unusual for the 

 Wryneck to breed in any situation other than a hole in a tree. 

 Early in June, 1884, Mr. Bartlett, of Banbury, visited the 

 colony of Sand Martins which have their burrows in the face of 

 a sand-pit on Tadmarton Heath. As he was about to put his 

 hand into one of the holes, a small brown bird flew out 

 very c^uickly and entered some bushes near at hand. At 

 the end of the burrow seven pure white eggs were found 

 in a slight nest of dry grass — probably an old nest of a 

 Sand Martin. Although Mr. Bartlett watched for a con- 

 siderable time he was unable to obtain another sight of the 

 bird. I saw some of the eggs a few days afterwards, and 

 told the finder I thought they must be a Wryneck^s. But as 

 the situation was so unusual, I forwarded one of the eggs with 

 an account of the incident to the Editor of the Zoologist., who 

 appended to my commimication the note, ' In shape and size 

 the eg^ sent certainly resembles that of a Wryneck^ [Zoologist, 

 1885, p. 27). Mr. A. G. Butler, when writing of five full- 

 fledged young of this species found by him in a hole in a 

 brick-earth cutting {^ib. 1887, p. 299), remarked that he had 

 ' never met with any recorded instance of the Wryneck breed- 

 ing in a hole in i\\e ground.^ 



Woodcock (p. 151). Mr. Harcourt tells me that he con- 

 siders the average number of Woodcocks annually killed in 

 his Oxfordshire woods to be twelve. The mild winter of 

 1888-89 ^"^^s ^ good season, and the number reached eighteen 

 {i7i lit.). During the third week in January one of his 

 keepers shot two Woodcocks, right and left, each of which 

 weighed over a pound [Zoologist, 1889, p. 149). This was a 

 remarkable shot, for a Woodcock of twelve ounces is a good 

 bird, and Yarrell says that fifteen ounces is far above the 

 average. Mr. Harcourt adds, ' I think the largest number I 

 have ever received in one day was eight Woodcocks, shot in 



