484 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



The majority of them were in very good plumage, but there were 

 a few not long out of the nest. They would allow you to get quite 

 close to them without showing any sign of fear ; as a rule, my 

 experience is rather the opposite in England. The earliest date I 

 have seen them in these parts is March 27th. I could not find any 

 Meadow Pipits' nests, although I have watched old birds with 

 their bills full of insects, evidently waiting to feed their young. 

 There were a few young about ; and these, as well as the old birds, 

 seem to me to be darker than they are in other places. In a few 

 cases they had began to flock, but not more than a dozen were 

 together, and always on the grassy slopes at the edge of the cliffs. 

 Stonechats were common enough, and the young, though fully 

 fledged, were still being fed by the old birds. Some of the old 

 males were in very fine plumage, but the majority were not. A 

 few Ring- Ouzels were to be seen, generally on the face of the 

 cliffs covered with vegetation, the only other inhabitants of which 

 were Wrens ; and they always seem plentiful in the wildest and 

 most inaccessible parts of the cliffs. 



Of Wagtails, Pied were common, but Grey not very. I only 

 saw a few solitary ones, and the fact of these being single is 

 curious, as I have almost invariably found them in pairs in 

 autumn and winter. 



Twites were generally in flocks of from five to twenty, feeding 

 on seeds of various plants. I saw one Cuckoo, evidently a young 

 bird. Swallows were beginning to flock, but Sand Martins were 

 still breeding ; in most cases the young were fully fledged, but I 

 found one nest with eggs hard-set — this was on the 17th of the 

 month. A few Swifts were flying about the top of one of the 

 mountains, two thousand feet high — that was the only place I 

 saw them ; it was on the 11th of the month. 



On the 2.3rd Flycatchers and Whitethroats were still about, 

 and on the 29th I heard a Chiffchaff ; these were the only two 

 Warblers that I noticed. Curlews were more plentiful than they 

 have been for some years, and were in fairly big flocks. Oyster- 

 catchers were also flocking ; I counted one hundred and fifty in 

 one flock. A few Sanderlings and Dunlins were about towards 

 the end of the month, but only in very small flocks of four or five. 



There is a point in connection with the song of birds which I 

 have not seen mentioned, although it must have been noticed by 



