328 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



White Wagtails, Jays, Magpies, Books, a Green Woodpecker, a 

 Sparrowhawk, and a little party of Tree Sparrows, with some of 

 their domestic relations. But my best luck happened in a little 

 open wood of Scotch firs on the slope of a sandy, heathery hill 

 facing the sun. Here I saw and heard the Chiffchaff (but only a 

 few notes), and fell in with a little party of White-headed Long- 

 tailed Titmice (Acredula caudata). One or two had signs of a 

 dark mark through the eye, the heads of the others were quite 

 white. They are very striking birds, looking rather bigger than 

 our race, and were nearly white underneath — altogether they 

 strike one as larger and lighter coloured than A. caudata rosea. 

 But their habits were similar and their notes too ; and I watched 

 them with great pleasure as they made their way in a straggling 

 manner over the top of the hill and into a scrub of low Spanish 

 chestnut saplings. Here, too, were three or four continental Coal 

 Tits (P. ater), with blue-grey backs, a Tree Creeper, &c. 



Oct. Oth. The weather being very bad, we made a rush by 

 train into Prussia — to Cleve — and back ; but the heavy rain- 

 storms interfered with observation, and I saw only a White 

 Wagtail, Black Crows, &c. I am pretty sure I heard the song 

 of a Black Redstart from the roofs of some of the houses, but 

 I could not see the bird. In the Kronenburg Park at Nymegen, 

 prettily laid out below the old fortifications, they have a nice col- 

 lection of wildfowl, including the Red-crested Pochard (Fuligula 

 rufina). 



Oct. 7th. We left for Liege. A little way beyond Venlo, in a 

 sandy agricultural country, I saw some Crested Larks. At Liege 

 there were many Song Thrushes in the shops, and two old Part- 

 ridges with the horseshoe white save for a few brown spots. La 

 chasse aux Grives had begun. 



Oct. 8th. A bunch of about a score of Meadow Pipits (bees-fins), 

 the ordinary light-breasted birds, and another of the same number 

 of Tree Sparrows, were offered to the hostess this morning. We 

 left for La Roche in the Ardennes. At Melreux we had to stop 

 an hour until the steam-tram started. The whole place was 

 rather like a farmyard, for the cow in the Ardennes village is a 

 most important personage ; the street was profusely adorned 

 with manure-heaps and pools of black water, which suit the 

 White Wagtail very well. At a little auberge they gave us quite 

 a zoological dejeuner, comprising a small Pike from the Ourthe 



