Natural History. 79 



I have now and then seen yellow wagtails in winter, but was 

 never sure of the species until one day in November, 1890, 

 under cover of a thick fog, I got close to a pair near the beck, 

 which proved to be Motacilla melanope^ the grey wagtail. They 

 were restless, but occasionally perched on the hedge. 



Swallows are not so numerous as house martins. There 

 were two nests about the Rectory ; one glued to the inside 

 wall of the pig-stye, the other on a ledge in the coal-house or 

 sometimes on a shelf in an out-house. On Aug. 26th, 1877, 

 I saw a young buff-coloured swallow flying with others. 

 Swifts do not build in the parish, but are constantly to be seen 

 and heard in summer, especially in the evening. The goldfinch 

 has been known to nest, and the young have been reared. In 

 March, 1891, a flock of 20 visited a lime avenue leading to the 

 Rectory. Flocks of redpolls and siskins frequent the hedges 

 and shrubberies in spring arid autumn. Siskins are very tamej 

 they are fond of the seeds of the cypress, and on one occasion 

 found something in a cabbage bed they liked. Their sweet 

 song cannot be mistaken when almost all other birds are mute. 

 Of late years thousands of starlings have made a young wood, 

 in the middle of the estate and far from a road, their resting- 

 place. They arrive in flocks from all quarters and alight first 

 in hedgerow trees, where they spend some time chattering 

 before finally flying off to the wood. A good many pairs rear 

 their young in chimneys, ivy, and holes in trees ; to the best 

 of my belief they are not double brooded. 



There is no large rookery; there were' about 14 nests at one 

 time in some old hedgerow elms in the "Hall Close," where 

 the old hall is said to have stood. The rooks all deserted those 

 trees one spring and came to a group of elms on the glebe, 

 within sight of their old homes. An old woman who lived 

 near said they left because the keepers fired into their nests. 

 Shooting the young ones will not drive them away, as is well 

 known, but it appears they dislike shot in their nests. Food 

 may have had something to do with the" flitting," for when there 

 was snow on the ground, the rooks would come and steal the 

 food thrown out for the small birds ; so they were given bones 

 and large crusts, which they carried off, leaving the little birds 

 to eat their crumbs in peace. 



A pair of great black woodpeckers was seen in the spring of 

 1890, and one was unfortunately shot. In the autumn the 

 green woodpecker is very fond of pecking about in rank grass, 

 and looks very comical with its head held at such a curious 



