138 FAUNISTIC NOTES 



May 1888 and 1889 a Reed Warbler sang in the privet hedge 

 just outside the turnstile by the School, and in a bush just 

 inside the privets, in spite of the school-children ; the song 

 was so unusually fine for a Reed Warbler that I began to 

 think it must be a Marsh Warbler, a bird I did not then know. 

 Nests of the Reed Warbler used to be built in lilacs, privets, 

 etc., in the city, but now the numbers have clearly diminished, 

 and one has to go further to find them." Mr. Warde Fowler 

 shortly afterwards visited the Alps and proved that the wonder- 

 ful singer of the Garden was after all only a highly-gifted 

 Reed Warbler. 



" Flycatchers used to sit on the labels occasionally and catch 

 the bees, as one might prove by the little parcels of wings 

 and legs which they dropped on the ground. Blackcaps and 

 Willow-wrens were, and probably still are, the characteristic 

 summer singers. One year at least I remember hearing 

 the Lesser Whitethroat singing in bushes just by the gate 

 into the High Street ; it was for some years very abundant 

 all about the city. But of late I have not heard so many " 

 (Letter of October 5, 1911). 



But on the whole, Mr. Warde Fowler and no one has 

 watched the birds more closely does not consider the Garden 

 so good for birds as, for example, Parson's Pleasure, which for 

 some reason has attracted travellers like the Pied Flycatcher 

 and the Wood-wren. 



FROGS 



" A curious fact I remember is that the gardeners used 

 to collect frogs for us in early summer, and that many (quite 

 a large proportion) had mutilated fore-limbs and sometimes 

 ditto hind-limbs. I never heard what this could be due to 

 perhaps frost-bite during hibernation, or perhaps rats ! I 

 should rather like to know if it has been observed since 

 and if known elsewhere as common " (E. R. L. ex lit.). 



