374 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
The Tree Pipit has been exceptionally numerous, and is the only 
one of our arboreal migrants which can be said to be at all 
plentiful. They arrived about the last week in the month, and 
their pleasing song has been heard from every copse and wood, 
both in the low country and over the high wolds. 
The first week in May brought a recurrence of winter, with 
east winds and frozen drains, the weather continuing most severe 
till after the 10th. On the night of the 9th there was a hard 
frost, with icicles two to three inches in length on the eaves of 
buildings. Notwithstanding the excessive cold House Martins 
were hawking on the beck and other open waters on the 9th. 
This day five black-breasted Golden Plovers pitched in one of 
our fields, and a single Swift appeared hawking above some large 
woodlands on the wolds. Swifts have been most abundant, so 
much so as to attract attention by their numbers, and I do not 
think I have ever known them generally hawk at so great a height. 
The Nightingale was heard on the 12th; they have been quite 
common in North-east Lincolnshire, also on the opposite side of 
the Humber in Holderness. A short break of warmer weather 
on the 13th brought the Sedge Warbler, and on the 14th the 
Garden Warbler. ‘The Whinchat was seen on the 17th; they 
have been most scarce, and I have not observed a tithe of 
the number which visits us in ordinary seasons. Spotted Fly- 
catchers appeared at their old haunts on the 14th; and on the 
same day Martins commenced laying the foundations of their 
nests under the eaves. 
A great peculiarity of this most untoward season has been 
the almost entire absence of the flocks of migratory waders from 
the Humber flats. On April 16th I saw a few Grey Plovers, 
and a flock of Dunlins, Tinga variabilis, estimated to contain 
from 1500 to 2000. These, with a few Whimbrel about the 
middle of May, complete my list. The probability is that the 
wet season having been prolonged so late into the summer our 
waders when once on the move have gone directly forward to 
their summer haunts, without making a half-way house of the 
Lincolnshire coast. 
On April 15th and subsequent days a Dipper visited our 
small stream. It was not wild, and permitted a tolerably near 
approach. Short of shooting and examining the bird, which 
I was reluctant to do, I had little doubt of its belonging to the 
