ornithology of oxfordshire. 22l 



March. 

 7th. Had news of some Gulls seen on the 5th here. The 

 second week in this month was very wet and stormy. 

 17th. Saw a Chiffchaff. 



18th. Several pairs of Peewits on the fallows. 

 2Gth. Flocks of Fieldfares now, and some Redwings. 



April. 



3rd. My nephew watched a pair of Nuthatches building ; 

 they brought the material from the dead limb of an oak. Three 

 days later they were dispossessed of the hole by Starlings. There 

 was no mud round the edges of the hole, which I saw. 



6th. Saw a Barred Woodpecker at Bodicote, and again in 

 this parish the next day. 



17th. Saw a Grey Wagtail, in spring dress, in the brook 

 near Wickham Mill. 



The season, as shown by the state of the fruit-blossom (very 

 fine this year), and the foliage generally, was extremely forward 

 in the middle of April ; according to some old men it was the 

 most forward they remembered. The most remarkable ornitho- 

 logical event of the season was the early arrival of the Cuckoo. 

 It was heard by a competent observer at Milcombe about 7.30 a.m. 

 on April 1st, and the same person saw two birds the next day. 

 An old farmer and several labourers heard it at Tadmarton on 

 the 2nd, as the former truly said, about three weeks before its 

 usual time. Curiously enough it is said, locally, to come to Tad- 

 marton first. Another farmer here reported it on the 5th, and a 

 dozen people heard it at Bloxham on the 8th. I was talking 

 this over with some of the village people, when one of them 

 remarked, " But do he ever go away?" " Well," I replied, "you 

 never see him in the winter, do you?" "No," he answered, 

 " he be the hawk, but he calls cuckoo in the spring." Another 

 old worthy opined that the Cuckoo's voice got broken later on, 

 because he "couldn't get no eggs to clear it!" I may add here 

 that the Cuckoo continued in full song up to June 20th. 



21st. I put a Carrion Crow off her nest ; she sat until I was 

 close to the tree, and was doubtless incubating. The next day 

 I saw, in a spinney here, a nest with the remains of at least three 

 eggs, which had been knocked out of a tree. 



22nd. Saw some Fieldfares. 



