16 



ETON NATURE-STUDY 



A BIRD CALENDAR.* 



* From notes made at Rosehill, Cheadle, Staffordshire. By John R. B. Masefield, M.A. 



1903. 

 6th July. 



Five young Sparrow Hawks in a nest in a larch tree are almost 

 ready to fly. They crouch down close to the nest when anyone 

 approaches and cannot be seen from below. The parent birds 

 appear to keep away from the nest during the day, feeding the 

 young only early and late. The pellets ejected by the parent 

 birds show skins and bones of field mice, voles and shrews, with 

 wing-cases of beetles. 



7th July. 



A brood of young Pied Wagtails leave the nest, which was 

 built in the ivy against the house. The first nest was built a 

 few feet higher up, but the eggs were sucked by house sparrows. 



8th July 



I found a young Cuckoo which had only recently left the nest, 

 lying dead on a garden path. It had apparently been killed by 

 striking some object in its flight, as the front of its head was 

 crushed in. This bird having been hatched in my grounds makes 

 the fortieth wild species that has bred with me during the last 

 few years. 



9th July. 



I counted five pairs of Spotted Flycatchers' nests on little 

 wooden brackets placed in the corners of windows and other 

 sheltered places on the house. 



10th July. 



I saw a flock of Peewits standing in a meadow in their usual 

 triangular form with heads facing the wind. Starlings, which 

 appear to be increasing in numbers every year, congregate in the 

 evening, roosting in mountain ash trees. 



llth July. 



The families of Blue and Cole Tits which were bred in nesting 

 boxes and holes in walls are now doing good service in clearing 

 trees and crops of the destructive larvae of moths. Hawfinches 

 have found out the green peas and are being trapped by irate 

 gardeners. A small flock of gulls passed over to-day, going westward. 



