List of Birds Examined. 



Field Observations. 



I have paid considerable attention to this bird in the field, 

 and on all occasions have had nothing to record against it. In 

 Oxfordshire I once watched two birds break up on a large stone by 

 the side of a hedge, forty-seven specimens of the two snails Helix 

 hortensis and H. nemoralis, Linn. The spot was evidently a favourite 

 feeding ground, for there were large quantities of broken snail 

 shells, amongst which I identified upwards of eighty shells of the 

 garden snail (H. aspersa, Mull.). 



It has been frequently mentioned to me that this bird damages 

 strawberries, but although I have watched it very carefully I have 

 never seen it attack the fruit. In most cases it has been after slugs 

 and beetles. 



Food of Nestlings. 



The food of the young is all in favour of this species. Of 

 twenty specimens examined, the following food-contents were made 

 out : 1 larva of Noctuid moth ; 3 wireworms ; remains of earth- 



