FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 277 



of swifts arrived here (Swanage) in a very exhausted condition, 

 many of them being even too weak to seek for food. They had, 

 no doubt, encountered the unusually severe weather which has 

 prevailed over the southern part of Europe lately. It was a pitiful 

 sight to see the poor birds on Sunday evening clustering round 

 the eaves of the houses and window sills. ,On windows being 

 opened they would at once hop into the room. On Monday 

 morning some of the lawns in the neighbourhood presented the 

 appearance of a miniature battlefield, being dotted with the dead 

 and dying. In several instances I saw them lying dead in pairs 

 clinging together by the claws, while one or two had their claws 

 so tightly round each other's bodies that it was almost impossible 

 to part them. I noticed on Tuesday that the majority of them 

 were on the wing, but some were still too weak to rise from the 

 ground, and early in the morning I saw some more dead ones 

 lying about ; but only half the number there were on the previous 

 day." 



At Montevideo, near Weymouth, three swifts came into the 

 house on arrival, apparently partly benumbed through the cold- 

 ness of the day, but all recovered after a time and were able to 

 fly away. It is a very uncommon thing in my experience for 

 swifts to enter a house (N. M. R.). 



PARTRIDGES very scarce, but WILD PHEASANTS very plentiful 

 this shooting season (E. S. R., CHARD). 



LONG-TAILED TIT (Acredula caudata}. One of these birds has 

 a nest and eleven eggs in the pump in the stable yard here 

 (E. S. R., CHARD). 



MARSH TIT (Parus palustris], This bird breeds here 

 (E. S. R., CHARD). 



FLYCATCHER (Muscicapa grisola). On the evening of June 

 23rd, at about 8.30, Mrs. Richardson saw a flycatcher make a 

 short flight from a sundial on the lawn in my garden and return 

 to it with a large moth, which in a few seconds escaped. The 

 bird went after it and caught it again, and, after it had got rid 

 of its wings, which it did by jerking it about and hitting it 

 against the stone of the sundial, much in the way in which a 



