144 FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 



Nesting. 

 June 3 

 June 25 



Departure. 

 July 22 



Aug. 27 



A pair seen at Corfe Mullen. (W.P.C.) 

 At Canford Bottom, in company with Dr. 

 Penrose, E.H.C. noted a female fly out of the 

 grass with something in her bill which he 

 thought was an egg shell. We all three spread 

 out and watched the bird back a few minutes 

 later. She rose again with what W.P.C. 

 pronounced to be a dead nestling. She dropped 

 this in the long grass about 15 yards from the 

 nest. W.P.C. found it and that it was a nestling 

 not long hatched, and with a very distended 

 crop. We then examined the nest and found 

 it contained one egg of the red closely sanded 

 type, very like a reddish meadow pipit's egg, 

 and one very weak nestling, which Dr. Penrose 

 considered to be in extremis. It died the next 

 day and was removed by the parent bird, who 

 incubated the remaining egg for two more days 

 and then deserted. 



No satisfactory explanation of this little 

 tragedy occurred to any of us, except the 

 possibility that some one had sown " poisoned " 

 seed somewhere locally, but we could not find 

 that this had been done. Moreover, the 

 bird's feeding ground was not on cultivated 

 land, and it would be unlikely to feed tiny 

 nestlings on seeds, as it is an entomophagous 

 bird. (W.P.C. and E.H.C.) 



These birds were still singing at Canford. 

 One heard singing in Canford Bottom. 

 (E.H.C.) 



(19) Anthus petrosus. The Rock Pipit. 



Aug. 20 Good number present on the Swanage coast 

 line. (W.P.C. and E.H.C.) 



