2228 



Birds, 



May 



1848. 



Common linnet about April 26 



Greenfinch 



Cole tit 



Ring dove 



Chaffinch 



Little grebe 



Goldfinch 



Great tit 



Yellow hammer 



Nightingale 



Blackcap 



Kestrel 



Bullfinch 



Willow warbler 



Green woodpecker 



27 



27 



1 



1 



3 



4 



4 



6 



8 



9 



10 



11 



11 



13 



1848. 



Redstart* about May 13 



Stonechat 



Sand martin 



Golden-crested regulus. 



Wryneck 



Swallow , 



Martin 



Common swift f , 



Common whitethroat . 



Red-backed shrike 



Turtledove , 



Spotted flycatcher 



Reed warbler... 



Cuckoo , 



55 •>■> 



14 



>» 5J 



15 



f) » 



16 



« J> 



17 



>» J5 



17 



»> >J 



18 



>? » 



19 



» » 



20 



» ?} 



24 



» »> 



24 



)> » 



29 



„ June 



! 3 



55 5» 



6 



The dates are those on which the birds respectively laid their first eggs. 

 Arrivals of Migratory Birds at Everton, Bedfordshire. 

 1848. 



Pied wagtail about February 14 



Peewit „ March 17 



Chiff-chaff „ April 1 



Willow warbler „ „ 6 



Redstart „ „ 10 



■Id. 



1848. 



Wryneck about April 12 



Blackcap „ „ 18 



Swallow „ „ 19 



Cuckoo , „ „ 19 



Nightingale „ „ 20 



The dates of migration and nidification of birds at Elveden were recorded by my 

 brother. — Id. 



Occurrence of the Melodious Willow Wren (Sylvia Hippolais) in Britain. — Those 

 interested in Natural History, more particularly in Ornithology, will be pleased to hear 

 of the capture, for the first time in the British Isles, of the melodious willow wren 

 (Sylvia Hippolais of Temminck), which was killed at Eythorne, near Dover, on the 

 15th of June. It is a beautiful specimen and in the most perfect plumage, and the 

 person who shot it was attracted by its extraordinary loud and melodious song. It is 

 a species which has hitherto never been found in England ; and Gould states, in his 

 ' Birds of Europe,' that it is somewhat singular that this species, so familiar to every 

 naturalist on the Continent, and which inhabits the gardens and hedgerows of those 

 portions of the coasts of France and Holland that are immediately opposite our own, 

 should not, like the rest of its immediate congeners, more diminutive in size, and 

 consequently less capable of performing extensive flights, have occasionally strayed 

 across the Channel and enlivened our glens and groves with its rich and charming 

 song, which is far superior to that of either of the three other species of the group, and 

 only equalled by those of the blackcap and nightingale. The bird, beautifully pre- 



* At Tetworth, Huntingdonshire, I this year obtained some eggs of this bird 

 spotted with rust colour, and much like those of the whinchat. 



f The early nidification of this bird is somewhat remarkable : it arrived only 

 May 6th. 



