14 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



just recovering from the effects of the winter of 1889, when dozens 

 of Stonechats were picked up dead. Possibly it suffered also in 

 parts of Mid and South Wales. I did not hear a single Chiff- 

 chaff, and Mr. Raeburn does not appear to have noticed it (in 

 May). But my companion observed one, and tells me he heard 

 some in April. Yet it could hardly have been present and have 

 become silent in June, for here in Oxon it sings on into the 

 latter part of July. Perhaps the April birds moved on, though I 

 cannot imagine why they should do so. I found the Chiffchaff 

 common in North-west Shropshire, on the Welsh borders, in May, 

 1888, and have heard it on the Angleseaside of the Menai Straits 

 in July. Mr. Rawlings notes it as common. I did not see the 

 Nuthatch, a pair of which Mr. Raeburn found nesting ; nor does 

 Mr. Rawlings include it in his list. In Shropshire, near the 

 Welsh borders, I have found it common in a well-planted park. 

 The distribution of many of our small birds in Wales and the 

 border counties is evidently very local, and it would be an 

 interesting study to work it out. The Lesser Whitethroat must 

 be a rare bird in Wales. Neither Mr. Raeburn nor I observed 

 it, and it is either not found or extremely rare in Pembrokeshire, 

 according to Mr. Mathew. But, curiously enough, Mr. Rawlings 

 is able to include it in his list, as "much rarer" than the 

 Common Whitethroat. Perhaps it is spreading from Salop to 

 North Wales. I observed it at Ellesmere in May, 1888, and the 

 late Mr. Beckwith wrote of it as common in that county, it 

 having increased greatly of late years. The Green Woodpecker 

 was not noticed by me, and Mr. Raeburn only heard it once in 

 Radnorshire. This, again, is curious, when we consider what a 

 noisy bird it is, and that I made the following note about it in 

 Merionethshire, in October, 1884 :— " Quite common in the 

 woods, and I observed it even in the hotel garden." In 

 Mr. Rawlings' list it is entered as " common." I did not expect 

 to find many House Sparrows when I saw what the country was 

 like, and I was not disappointed. We saw none until we 

 approached a town again. But our landlord said a few came in 

 harvest ; I suppose to help him get in his little patch of corn ! 

 Mr. Rawlings omits the name from his list altogether. This is, 

 possibly, an oversight. I found very few in Merionethshire in 

 October, 18H4, and those only about farms. There was no 

 ground suitable for river warblers in the part of Carmarthen- 



