350 Major W. M. Cougreve : Ornithological and [Ibis, 



Pica pica. Magpie. 



Extremely common, and their nests are quite a feature of 

 the landscape. 



Garrulus glandarius. Continental Jay. 



Common, nesting in all the woods and spinneys. A nest 

 of six considerably incubated eggs in the top of an ivy- 

 grown pollarded willow on 20 May, and another with five 

 considerably incubated eggs on 10 June in an oak-tree. 



Sturnus vulgaris. Starling. 



Not very common. Nesting in typical situations, espe- 

 cially old Woodpeckers' holes. 



Oriolus oriolus. Golden Oriole. 



A pair of males first seen at Saigneville on 10 May. 



A fairly common species and easy to locate owing to its 

 curious distance-carrying note. Every wood of any size at 

 all had at least one pair nesting in it, and they were found 

 occasionally in quite open spinneys. 



In the Peronne district they were even more common 

 than farther north, and they were easier to locate owing to 

 the woods being smaller. 



One nest, found near Peronne in June, was suspended at 

 the end of a thin beech bough some twenty feet from the 

 ground, in a small wood seamed with old German trenches 

 and dug-outs. It was a puzzle to discover where the fine 

 sheep's-wool came from out of which the nest was con- 

 structed, for there are no civilians or, consequently, sheep 

 for many square miles of that district. The mystery was 

 solved by discovering several old sheep's-wool mattresses 

 lying about 300 yards from the nest, at the entrance of a 

 " dug-out." These mattresses had doubtlessly been looted 

 from some Frenchman's home during the Hun occupation. 



Another nest in the same district was in a Silver Birch, 

 and was made entirely of paper and one or two big chicken's 

 feathers. Unfortunately there were two large young^ birds 

 in the nest, so it could not be cut down. The paper would 

 have been of interest, as it was probably " made in Germany." 



