7642 Birds. 



one swallow by the round pond in Blauliheath Park ; 29tli, three swallows were hawking 

 on the heath ; 30tb, saw two swallows at Eltham moat, one swallow on the pond at Kid- 

 brooke farm, one wliinchat spvingiii}? up catchiiij? gnats, one tree pipit. May 2nd, I 

 saw a pair of willow wrens building, and mighty fussy and important they were about 

 it : looking through my telescope along a path I saw a nightingale and a robin feeding 

 together, and plucky little robin kei)t pecking and driving the aristocratic nightingale 

 away; 9lh, one swallow, one whilethroat, one whinchat ; 12th, I met a pair of house 

 martins in Lee Lane, and saw a pair building at Ellhani, and four were hawking over 

 the new houses in the Dover Road ; swallows located ; 15th, I was delighted to see 

 two swifts at Eltham ; 18th, I saw one butcher bird, one flycatcher ; swifts, swallows, 

 and house martins were disporting over Eltham ; 19th, I counted at once ten swifts 

 careering over and chasing each other round the ancient church of Eltham, their birth- 

 place fur hundreds of generations. The swift is emblematic of life, liberty and velocity. 

 The early swallows could not stay at home for want of food. I generally first meet 

 with ihem on the old ponds. The season has been too cold to develope sufficient insect 

 life ; I have seen none stay over water. I have walked many miles along the hedges 

 of the roads and fields, scarcely meeting with a bird. The whitethroats alone are 

 plentiful ; I find them creeping about the nettles at the bottom of a warm thick thorn 

 hedge, picking up the little black ground spiders and the red ants. I have not seen 

 a blackcap, a chiffcbafl"or lesser whitelhroat; I suppose I miss them through deafness. 

 A source of unalloyed enjoyment, the sweet melody of the nightingale, the blackcap, 

 the garden warbler and the woodlark, is lost to me. I can see a bird singing away 

 joyously, and cannot hear a note. I can only just catch the last piercing note of 

 scolding jenny wren. The house martins came with the warmth on Sunday, the 12th 

 of May ; there was a strong S.W. upper current of clouds, while the under current 

 was N.E. I send my notes of the birds I saw to show how late and slowly they have 

 arrived : they are three weeks late. The swift is ten days behind his time. Vege- 

 tation this season appears to be three weeks backward. — Matthew Hutchinson ; Black- 

 heath, May 20, 1861. 



Occurrence of the Osprey near Winlaton. — On the 19ih of last May a beautiful 

 osprey was cauf;ht in a wood near this place. It must have been wounded some little 

 time ago, as it was in miserable condition, though its plumage was splendid. I have 

 heard of them being seen at Tynemoulh, which is about fourteen miles from here, but 

 this is the first I ever heard of in this neighbourhood. It had got entangled in a 

 bramble bush, and was unable to rise. It is in the possession of Mr. Edward Hutchin- 

 son. — Thomas Thompson ; Winlaton, May 22, 186L 



Occurrence of the Osprey, ^c, at Swatuw. — Through the kindness of Mr. Caine, 

 H.M. Consul at S watow, I am able to record the acquisition of another osprey {Pandion 

 leucocephalus of Gould, P. haliaelus oricntalis of Te'.nminck). The specimen received 

 in the flesh from Swatow is a male, and as I before had the pleasure of noting a 

 female of this somewhat rare bird from Amoy in the pages of the ' Zoologist,' a few 

 remarks on this male will also probably find acceptable place. Length 20 inches. 

 Wing, 18. Tail, 7^. Length of bill, 1^ ; height, ■^. Tarsi, 2^^. Outer toe, 1^ ; its 

 claw, 1t^. Mid toe, 1^; its claw, 1-^. Inner toe, 1^ ; its claw, 1^. Hind toe, 1^; 

 its claw, l-j^. Wing stretching 2^ inches beyond the tail. The bill is measured from 

 the gape horizontally, and the claws in their diameter. Bill grayish black, grayish 

 blue on the basal edge of upper mandible and the basal third of lower. Lore dark 

 grayish blue. Cerejthe same, tinged with yellow. Legs pale flesh-blue, bluer towards 



