NOTES FROM NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE. 



61 



nest in the centre of a rough thorn; the nest is just too high to 

 look into, and the bush much too thick and scratchy to get at the 

 eggs. There are now, within a two-mile radius of the house, four 

 Nightingales to be heard. The Nightingale haunts ehiefly those 

 places in woods and plantations where the blackthorn grows the 

 closest and strongest. 



May 12th. God wit, Einged Plover, Dunlin, Whimbrel, and 

 Curlew on the foreshore. 



August 6th. Many Curlews in the marshes on pasture land. 



August 7th. Wind strong S.W. Early this morning I noticed 

 an unusual number of Willow Wrens in the garden, chiefly on the 

 rows of peas, where it was pleasing to watch them creeping up 

 and down, now showing their olive-green upper plumage and then 

 the delicate lemon-tinted throat and breast. I have no doubt 

 they formed part of some migratory band, as I looked in vain for 

 them a few hours later. 



August 18th. Warm and very close, with thunder impending. 

 At 10 p.m. there was a very large flight of Wild Geese over the 

 house, apparently circling round with much noisy clamour. 



August 25th. The last fortnight in August and early in 

 September were remarkable for the very unusual number of 

 Curlew Sandpipers. Near Spurn, on this day and the following, 

 I saw several hundreds, also about half a dozen Little Stints, 

 the two species having migrated at the same time as on previous 

 occasions. A few examples of the former were all young birds, 

 having the under parts suffused with buff; so also have young 

 Knots and Godwits, birds the adults of which in summer have 

 the lower parts chestnut-red. Sept. 2nd was an important migra- 

 tion day, commencing with a gale from S S.E., but at mid-day 

 from S.W. Knot in summer plumage arrived in flocks, Little 

 Stints in large flocks, — one hundred together, — many Black Terns 

 also with the commoner species, some of the former being mature 

 birds. On this night at 9.30, in my own garden here, I distinctly 

 heard the note of the Little Stint passing overhead amongst those 

 of other waders. Both Curlew Sandpiper and Little Stint were 

 fairly plentiful at Spurn up to the middle of September. 



August 26th. I saw both the Bedstart and Pied Flycatcher 

 near Kilnsea to-day, also, on the Humber side of the Spurn, 

 Knot, Curlew, Whimbrel, Common Godwit, Curlew Sandpiper, 

 Sanderling, Kinged Plover, Dunlin, Turnstone, eight Golden Plover 



