434? Natural History in the English Counties. 



a Shetland pony, and, if I recollect rightly, some silver pheasants, and Cu- 

 ra9oa birds, complete this collection, the future expense of which is to be 

 limited to 1000/. a year, it having hitherto much exceeded that sum. Six 

 men^are employed on the premises, as keepers, watchmen, gardeners, &c., 

 and most of them reside in the house, which is very pretty, and two 

 rooms of which are reserved for the use of subscribers. . There is a small 

 green-house filled with plants, which go to decorate the garden in London ; 

 and a fishpond, which, 1 believe, is stocked with carp. 



This is all I can tell you of the farm, the ostensible object of which is 

 to " preserve the different races of British animals pure and distinct ; '* 

 instead of which, with the exception of the rabbits, they are now all 

 together : and thus the Society is paying 1000/. a year in order to main- 

 tain diseased rabbits and cross-bred pigeons, and to offer a country resi- 

 dence for their sickly quadrupeds, which surely might be obtained at a 

 much slighter expense. — Confidential. May 29. 1830. 



The Nightingale was heard for the first time this season on Sunday 

 evening, the 18th of April, and again in another part of the Regent's Park 

 last evening, by. Sir, &c. ■ — R. G. Sussex Flace^ April 20. "1830. 



It was heard at Bayswater and in Kensington Gardens about the 18th or 

 19th; there are now (23d, mid-day,) two birds singing in Hopgood's nm- 

 sery, not far from our window, most delightfully ; and in the evening these 

 birds and others in Kensington Gardens may be heard from Hyde Park 

 Corner to Kensington Gravel Pits. The bird-catchers are already watching 

 in the lanes, and we fear will succeed, as they did last year, in capturing 

 some of them. We certainly think, the legislature ought to forbid bird- 

 catching for a distance of twenty miles round St. Paul's, not only for the 

 sake of the song of singing birds, but for the service which the birds render 

 to gardens by keeping down the insects. — Cond. 



Art. III. Natural History in the English Counties. 



Middlesex. 



Arrival of the Thrushes and Fieldfares. — Perhaps it may be worth men- 

 tioning, that the redwing thrushes and fieldfares arrived earlier last autumn 

 than ever I knew them before. On the 15th of September, a large flock 

 came into the orchard at the end of our garden, about which they remained 

 for several weeks, feeding on the yew berries and haws, which were plen- 

 tiful there. At the end of the same month the fieldfares arrived, and they 

 had cleared the whole of the berries before the cold weather set in; and at 

 the time that the snow lay so long on the ground, they were so distressed 

 for food that they cleared the whole of the ivy berries when they were 

 scarcely larger than shot, so that I do not believe there will be a ripe ivy 

 berry to be seen in the neighbourhood of London this year. At any rate, 

 that is the case about here, and also on the walls on and near Wimbledon 

 Common and Putney Heath. I have this spring seen but one summer bird 

 of passage, the wUlow wren, and that was on the morning of the 24th of 

 March. I am. Sir, yours, &c. — R. Sweet. Pomona Place, April 6. 



Surrey. 



Early Appearance of Swallows. — On the 1st of this month, passing along 

 the river-side at Barnes, in Surrey, I observed (with others) several swal- 

 lows, very strong and lively, flying close to the water, although the snow 

 was falling rather fast at the time. Several hot days had preceded, the 

 latter end of March having been warm and fine, which might have brought 

 them into action : none have appeared since that I know of. Supposing the 



