BIRDS 



found it not rare about Chequers Court, and 

 we have observed it regularly every year near 

 Aston Clinton, Halton and Weston Tur- 

 ville. Mr. A. Heneage Cocks found it 

 plentiful in the parish of Hambledon of recent 

 years. He generally noticed it on small trees 

 in hedgerows. It is mostly known as the 

 'butcher bird.' 



44. Waxwing. Ampelis garrulus, Linn. 

 This irregular winter visitor appears very 



seldom in the midland counties. Clark 

 Kennedy writes : ' An immense flock ap- 

 peared along the eastern shores of our island 

 in the winter of 1849-50, which was very 

 severe, and several specimens were at that 

 time procured in different parishes in Bucking- 

 hamshire. I am indebted to the Rev. Bryant 

 Burgess for the notice of a Bohemian wax- 

 wing which was killed at Ivinghoe Aston in 

 January 1850, and which is now in his 

 collection. An immense number of Bohe- 

 mian waxwings were shot in the neighbour- 

 hood of Buckingham during the spring of 

 1867, as Mr. J. W. Thorpe told me ' (Birds 

 of Berks and Bucks, 1868, p. 174). 



45. Pied Flycatcher. Muscicapa atricapilla, 



Linn. 



We have very few records of this some- 

 what rare bird, though we have no doubt that 

 it frequently passes through the county on 

 migration, and perhaps even nests more or 

 less regularly. According to Morris it has 

 once been killed within the county, many 

 years ago, and Clark Kennedy, on the author- 

 ity of Captain Elwes, mentions a nest with 

 eggs being taken near Eton in the summer of 

 1860 (Birds of Berks and Bucks, 1868, p. 

 1 69). Mr. Heatley Noble wrote to us : 

 ' A nest with six eggs was taken on my 

 late father's property, Berry Hill, Taplow, in 

 June 187- (the exact year cannot be given). 

 The female was unfortunately killed on the 

 nest.' Mr. H. Heneage Cocks writes : ' On 

 May 12, 1883, our gardener at Great Mar- 

 low saw in our orchard a bird with white on 

 the wings, which, from its movements and 

 other habits, must have been a flycatcher. 

 He said it looked somewhat like a female 

 chaffinch, but the beak was different. Sir J. 

 A. Godley, K.C.B., reported several years 

 before to have seen one specimen there. 

 Two days afterwards the gardener saw evi- 

 dently the pair, but though I watched for 

 them repeatedly I did not see them, nor were 

 they ever seen again.' On May 10, 1901, 

 E. Hartert heard its unmistakable and to 

 him familiar note and saw the male at Ment- 

 more, and he has no doubt that the bird was 



breeding there, though he could not find the 

 nest. 



46. Spotted Flycatcher. 

 Linn. 



Musicapa grisola. 



A very common bird everywhere. One of 

 the latest arrivals in spring. 



47. Swallow. Hirundo rustica, Linn. 



Very common everywhere. They gener- 

 ally arrive in the second week of April or 

 even later, but sometimes earlier. Clark 

 Kennedy reported a pair being seen on April 

 I, 1867, near Eton in Bucks. Sometimes 

 they also remain exceptionally late, namely 

 till October 20, and even into November. 

 In Loudon's Magazine of Natural History it 

 is stated that Mr. F. G. Tatem observed two 

 swallows at High Wycombe on November 

 22. Enormous quantities are sometimes seen 

 on the Thames before their departure. In 

 Novitates Zoologies, vols. i. ii., one of us 

 has recorded interesting facts about a pair 

 of swallows in Aylesbury which hatched for 

 several successive years some white young 

 ones among the usual dark ones. In May 

 1891 four white swallows were hatched and 

 flew away. In 1892 one was hatched in the 

 same nest, the rest were said to have been of 

 the usual colour. In 1893 the nest contained 

 two white and two regularly coloured young. 

 In 1 894 two white and two regularly coloured 

 ones. In 1894 another nest containing two 

 white females and two or three dark birds was 

 found in the same town. In 1895 the pair 

 bred twice. The first time it had three 

 white and two black ones, the second time it 

 had four black young and one white. On 

 August 6, 1895, a white swallow was seen a 

 mile from Aylesbury by Arthur Goodson. 

 Colonel Goodall often saw a white swallow 

 in September 1901 in the parish of Dinton. 

 He made inquiries and found that three white 

 swallows were hatched in the same nest in 

 1899 at Broughton, and that one was hatched 

 in 1900, another in 1901 at Waterstock, 

 Oxon. 



48. House-Martin. Chelidon urbica (Linn.). 



Though a very common "bird it is absent 

 from many villages where one would expect 

 to see it. The Rev. H. Harpur Crewe has 

 reported having seen a martin ' merrily hawk- 

 ing for flies for about half an hour ' at Hart- 

 well near Aylesbury on December 5, 1874. 

 The house-martin does not, as a rule, arrive 

 before the middle of April, but Mr. Clark 

 has seen a pair in the last week of March 

 near Eton in Bucks. The same ornithologist 

 has also noticed the martin as late as October 



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