ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 551 
On the morning of May 9th, which was cold and rainy, with 
a strong westerly gale, I heard a Woodcock loudly sounding 
its note while flying, as early as four o’clock. The Blackcock, 
too, were drumming pretty lustily and later than usual, 
but still only before sunrise and for a very short time. I also 
saw a pair of Kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) constantly circling 
round some thick firs. With rushing flight they mounted 
high aloft, screaming loudly and playfully pursuing each 
other, and as they vanished several times into a dense fir 
tree I imagine they must have had a nest there; the 
branches, however, were so matted that I could not satisfy 
myself on this point, though I certainly thought I heard 
the hungry cries of the young hawks. This would have been 
unusually soon, and only to be accounted for by the very 
early spring. 
I must also record the interesting fact that, up to May 11th, 
I had not seen a single Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio), 
though, while rambling about the neighbourhood of Prague, 
I searched the localities which I knew to have been the 
favourite haunts and breeding-grounds of this bird in former 
years, and I had already noted that it arrived near Vienna 
during the end of April and at Prague in the beginning 
of May. 
On May 12th I saw a little falcon sitting on a telegraph- 
wire by the highroad south of Prague, and being struck by its 
very small size, I shot it. It turned out to be a Red-legged 
Falcon in the plumage of the second year, a somewhat rare 
bird in this district. 
On May 13th I saw the first Flycatcher (Muscicapa grisola) 
in a garden at Prague, and on the 14th several in the same 
place ; also some young Blackbirds fully fledged, and a pair 
of Garden-Warblers (Sylvia hortensis) at their already 
finished nest. 
