Birds. 9451 



others which I could not identify. Saw chaffinches, linnets, green- 

 finches, and a blue tit in the garden — all fresh arrivals. On the 20th, 

 after a great fall of rain, wind S. to N.W., and getting colder, we found 

 two couples of full snipes and two couples and a half of jack snipes by 

 the side of a pool of rain-water, where a lot of school-boys were playing 

 and sailing their boats : this was part of a great migration. The same 

 evening I found about thirty full snipes by the Abbey Pool. Snipes 

 were very noisy at night. Yesterday, the 21st, we went to St. Mary's; 

 found an immense flight of jack snipes and a good many full snipes; 

 the latter very wild : killed sixteen full snipes and twenty-five jack 

 snipes, making a total of twenty couples and a half, in a very short 

 time, we having started for St. Mary's late. I had four jack snipes 

 and one full snipe on the ground at once, and killed six jack snipes 

 without moving from one place. Saw some shorteared owls and field- 

 fares. To-day, the 22nd, we went to St. Mary's again ; wind S.E. to 

 N.E. I did not expect to get much ; we found a good many full 

 snipes, desperateljf wild, and the remains of yesterday's flight of jack 

 snipes ; killed six full snipes and eight jacks. A quantity of lapwings, 

 plovers and a few golden plovers flying about in a restless way, as if 

 lately arrived; the high ground at St. Mary's alive with thrushes, red- 

 wings and fieldfares, with the usual large number of blackbirds and larks, 

 and a few snipes in small wisps on the highest downs, as if just come. 

 There are unusually large numbers of widgeons and teals on the pools, 

 and a few shovellers. Starlings remarkably scarce ; I have observed 

 a decrease in their numbers for several years past. I can think of no 

 more ornithological news to tell you, but if this weather continues you 

 will probablj' hear of some fun here. The wind is now N.E., a gale; 

 thermometer 42°. 



Christmas Day. — I resume my journal of shooting experiences this 

 evening. Yesterday, the cold weather continuing, we started for 

 St. Mary's; wind east, and a slight film of ice on some of the pools. 

 We found a few snipes, and some arrived while we were shooting; 

 they were all, even the jacks, wild. The bag was ten couples of 

 snipes, three teals, one water rail, one golden plover, one rabbit and a 

 bittern. I was looking with my setter " Don" for a wounded snipe, 

 when he drew on, and stood in a desperately thick field of rushes ; 

 expecting to see the snipe before him, 1 followed a narrow path, and 

 saw the bittern crouching on the ground between myself and the dog: 

 he heard or saw me, and I observed the quick motion of his snake- 

 like head as he turned it towards me, and proceeded to get off the 

 ground accordingly ; this he made rather a bad hand of, and I could 



