226 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



I hope to make fuither observation before definitely stating the 



fact. 



July. 

 9th. I went to Kingham to see the Marsh Warbler's nest 

 found by Mr. Fowler. Four eggs had been laid. The next day 

 Mr. Fowler reported that two young were hatched. 



August. 



16th. A few Swifts were to be seen on this date, but none 

 after. 



September. 



I was sitting under a hedge one day, watching a covey of Ked- 

 legged Partridges running in straggling order over a bare stubble, 

 and talking to an old labourer who is very keen on such subjects, 

 when he told me he remembered the first appearance of the bird 

 in this neighbourhood. The first he ever saw was sent from 

 Worton to the late Dr. John Colegrove, of Bloxham (with whom 

 he was then living), over forty years ago. The doctor brought it 

 iato the kitchen to show them, and then had it stuffed. The 

 species was said to have been introduced at Worton by a French- 

 man (?), who then lived at Upper Worton House, and who 

 imported some, which he kept in confinement for a time, and then 

 turned out. About that time, according to my informant, they 

 began to preserve the game about here. 



1st. Blackbird singing faintly. This is the only occasion on 

 which I have heard it sing in autumn ; but it was a glorious day, 

 one of the most delicious I have experienced in any country. 



18th. A flock of about fifty Grey Geese were reported as 

 flying across the village, and more on the 20th. They were going 

 N.E., which is unusual at this time of year. The appearance of 

 Wild Geese flying over, N.E. and S.W., in spring and autumn 

 respectively, is perfectly well known to some of the inhabitants 

 of this village, the local idea (which is probably a tradition) being 

 that they come " out of the Fens." I have for a long while 

 suspected that we are occasionally visited by Greylag Geese in 

 early autumn, but apparently they very rarely alight here. 



I bought (28th August) at a sale of the furniture and effects 

 of an old house — long inhabited by a man who horsed the coaches, 

 and afterwards by his widow — called Bury Barns, Burford, a case 

 containing a male pure-bred Phasianus colcliicus, a pied male of 

 the same, a Blackcock, and a Golden Plover. It is extremely 



