182 SUMMEK MIGRANTS. 



tlieir wont. Such, however, as far as I have noticed here, does not 

 seem to have been the case, at loast to any great extent. One or two 

 species were, perhaps, a trifle earlier ; whilst, at tlie same time, others 

 were certainly behind time. The Chiffchaff, our earliest visitor, I did 

 not notice till March 2;'5th, when I observed one busily hawking for 

 midges, which swarmed under the shelter of a tall hawthorn hedge 

 already green. It frequently took the insects on the wing, flying out 

 the distance of a few feet from the hedge after the manner of a fly- 

 catcher, but generally preferred to secure those within easier reach by 

 flitting from twig to twig. Its song was faint, but, three days after, 

 I heard another " chip-chopping " loi;dly. Swallows were reported 

 here by the 6th April ; I myself did not see them till the 13th, and 

 they wei'e not plentiful before the 17th. On the 12th I noticed a 

 Willow-Wren in full song ; this is about their average date. In another 

 week the migrants began to arrive in strong force ; on the 19th I 

 noticed four new ones, viz. : — House Martin, Yellow Wagtail — rather 

 ate this year, — Tree Pipit, in full song, and Redstart. The last named 

 had young flying on June 10th. There must have been a rush of 

 migrants on the night of the 20th, for the ne.xt morning I noticed a 

 dozen or more Common Whitethroats singing lustily within a short 

 distance of one another, besides Sedge Warblers. It would appear, 

 either that when the warblers reach this district only a portion of 

 the detachments remain, whilst the others push on, or that they 

 arrive here in small bodies, and then scatter. A species may be very 

 plentiful one day in a certain locality — the hedges seeming alive with 

 them — where a few days after but few will be noticed, whilst at the 

 same time they will be found more generally diffused. Some such 

 hypothesis as the above-mentioned seems necessary to account for 

 this. The day following (20th) a Corncrake was captured in the town 

 of Banbury, having probably come in contact with the telegraph wii-es, 

 as it was a good deal injured. I did not hear any " craking " until 

 May 12th. It is difficult to say when the Cuckoo really did appear ; it 

 was reported from the end of March onwards, but I could get no useful 

 observation till the middle of April ; by May 2nd they were plentiful, 

 growing hoarse by the 18th, and on the 30th of that month I heard one 

 cry, like Chaucer's, " three cuckoos to one coo." On May morning I 

 observed a pair of Lesser Whitethroats ; this species, like its larger 

 relative, will sing on the wing. On the evening of the next day a 

 Blackcap sang beautifully. This bird generally arrives during the first 

 or second week in April, and probably did so this season. I noticed 

 three Swifts swinging round and screaming loudly on the 9th, and two 

 days afterwards they were numerous. Turtle Doves appeared on the 

 12th. A keeper told me the same evening that he had just seen a 

 Common Sandpiper sit on their bridge wall, and that although the birds 

 visited their moat every spring, he had never seen them settle on a 

 wall before. They generally appear early in May. As I was walking 

 in that neighbourhood on the evening of the 2nd, a small flock of birds 

 passed me flying rapidly and rather low in the direction of the moat ; 



