ORNITHOLOGY OF OXFORDSHIRE. 437 



scarce. I think these birds must suffer greatly from hard 

 winters. I examined, at Henley, a Little Owl shot at Turville 

 Heath at the end of 1894. The birdstuffer told us he preserved 

 three local Little Auks during the visitation in January, 1895. I 

 may mention that one obtained on Port Meadow at that date is 

 preserved in the University Museum ; the Chipping Norton 

 example has come into my possession. In an old collection of 

 birds at an inn I found a specimen of White's Thrush ; unfortu- 

 nately no particulars respecting the collection are forthcoming. 

 During our stay we noticed the arrival or presence of Grasshopper 

 Warbler, April 25th ; House Martin, 26th ; Whitethroat, 26th ; 

 Lesser Whitethroat, 27th ; Common Sandpiper, 29th ; Sedge 

 Warbler, 29th ; Swift, May 1st ; Turtle Dove, 1st. We heard 

 the Wryneck twice; this bird is not common now in Oxon. 



In Oxfordshire the Stone Curlew is known as the Curlew or 

 Curloo. Barren open stretches on the undulating downs, as 

 open and exposed as possible, are the haunts the Curloos chose ; 

 for there the bird's long legs and watchful eye enable him to 

 guard against a surprise. The spot they select on our hills may 

 be a vast field, partly under plough and partly derelict arable 

 land, fallen back to poor condition, or " tumbled down," as they 

 say, sweeping smoothly down to the foot of the hills in gentle 

 basin-like slopes. Here on the short bare grey-green herbage, 

 strewn with grey-and-white Hints, the great down Hares sit out 

 in perfect safety. As I examined the field with the glasses I 

 counted five of them. Many pairs of Peewits were scattered over 

 the field, and now and then one or two would get up and tumble 

 about in the air, and their sweet calls came softly up. Books 

 and Starlings were dotted about, the former probably up to no 

 good. Again, the haunt may be a turfy down, with a great white 

 blaze on its side, and on its lower slopes big juniper bushes, some 

 old yew trees, and a belt of spruce and larch. The scrubby her- 

 bage is strewn with flints and white chalk-stones raked out of the 

 rabbit-burrows, where a pair of Wheatears flit and run. From 

 its most barren slope, thickly strewn with flints and chalk-stones, 

 and sparsely clothed with short wiry grass and stonecrop, and 

 dotted with dead plant- stems a foot high, I heard the "clamour" 

 of the Curloo ; and from it a pair rose and settled again, in view, 

 but where the dead stems stood thickly. On being raised once 



