Crows and Grouse Eggs 287 



rubt) becoming abundant, latter first seen about the 9th. 

 Whinchats came about the 9th, in a large body, and at 

 once set about nesting. In 1906, they arrived in force on 

 May 4th, along with Cuckoos, Corncrakes, and Spotted 

 Flycatchers : but in that year a single male was seen, with 

 a lot of Stonechats, on 8th March, the earliest record, by 

 nearly a month, contained in my notebooks, for any part 

 of the kingdom, though these have been carefully kept for 

 upwards of thirty years. The weather, early in March 

 1906, was very cold and stormy, a westerly gale blowing 

 from 5th to 8th, accompanied by heavy rains. The Whin- 

 chat was not seen again after the 8th, and no other appeared 

 till 4th May. The first Red-backed Shrike was seen in 

 1 906, on yth May, a solitary female ; pairs became established 

 a day or two later. A Wood Wren also seen on the 7th ; 

 and several pairs, the males in song, on nth May. These 

 were not specially recorded in the previous years ; but 

 otherwise, as already stated, 1 906 was practically a repetition 

 of 1905. In each year Nightjars were first heard churning 

 on the night of 2Oth May. 



On 1 4th May a Little Grebe's nest found, with one egg, 

 at a small lake out on the moors ; several Grouse nests with 

 fresh eggs seen on same day, and at the water's edge the 

 shells of many sucked eggs, no doubt brought there by 

 Crows, as is their habit. A keeper told me that one day, a 

 few years ago, he actually counted over two hundred grouse 

 eggs lying sucked round one water hole on the moors ! In 

 one of the nests seen to-day, the eggs, eight in number, 

 closely resembled those of a Greyhen in colour and marking, 

 only one of them showing any suspicion of the rich red, or 

 brown tint, usually seen in the eggs of Red Grouse. 



In a nest on the rafters of a shed at the station, a Robin, 

 and a Pied Wagtail, are each laying an egg every day. 

 The nest, evidently built by the Wagtail, disappeared, with 

 its contents, a few days later. 



Nests of the Bullfinch, Creeper, Merlin, Kestrel, Sparrow 

 Hawk, and Yellow Hammer, all with eggs during the next 

 few days : the last named is not very numerous here. 

 Redpolls, which are abundant, were almost a week later in 



