Bolam: The Natural History of Hornsea Mere. 53 
Swirt.—Numerous and often in large flocks of several 
hundreds over the Mere. Some of the workpeople told me 
when I went to Hornsea that ‘to see a Swift was-a sign of rain.’ 
It generally proved to be a true proverb this year, for after 
they came we had rain on most days! Quite a dozen were 
hawking over the Mere on 30th April; in the evening we had 
seven degrees of frost. A fine spring day on ist May with 
S.E. wind, was our first ‘ balmy’ day, and Swifts became numer- 
ous. Many breed at Hornsea. 
NIGHTJAR. Very rarely seen here. Taylor and I heard 
one (the first he had ever heard here) purring in the park on 
the evening of roth June, but I heard or saw no more of it. 
WRYNECK and NUTHATCH, unknown here. 
GREEN WOODPECKER.—laylor says this bird only appeared 
at Wassand last year for the first time during his residence 
(32 years). This year we had at least two pairs in April, but 
only one pair apparently remained to attempt breeding. They 
bored a hole in an ash tree near the Boat House, with great 
diligence, and apparently completed it by roth May. I noticed 
them first engaged at it on 25th April, by which date the hole 
was already large enough to allow a bird to get quite out of 
sight in it. The chips were allowed to fall to the ground at 
the foot of the tree. The ‘ nest’ was seemingly ready for eggs 
—if the hen had not actually begun to lay (for it could not be 
examined)—by roth May and next day a ceaseless persecution 
by Starlings began. Several of these had by that date nests 
in the vicinity—some of them already having young—one or 
two being within twenty or thirty yards of the Woodpecker’s 
tree; but as already noted there were considerable numbers of 
non-breeding Starlings roosting in the reeds on the Mere 
throughout the summer. A few—nearly always in pairs, 
sometimes two or three pairs in company—of these Starlings had 
sung and whistled on the tops of this and neighbouring trees 
all along, and a casual look at the hole had sometimes been 
taken by the more inquisitive of them, but up to the evening of 
the gth May they had not shown any disposition to interfere 
with the rightful owners, and the Woodpeckers had remained 
unmolested. That evening, however, I noticed the Wood- 
peckers beginning to resent a too frequent visit by Starlings 
to the neighbourhood of their hole, and had made up my mind 
that it would be advisable to get Taylor to shoot some of them 
at once. Next morning the persecution had become incessant 
and it continued so throughout the day, in spite of the fact 
that for several hours I remained in the vicinity and did all 
I could to keep the Starlings away. One Woodpecker in 
particular (probably the male) kept up a continual battle with 
the intruders, chasing them away from the hole with loud 
cries, and on one occasion I saw him (if it were the male as sup- 
1913 Jan. 1. 
