50 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



visitor to our county, it is not, and never was, common in the 

 immediate neighbourhood of Lilford, and the nest and eggs here 

 referred to are the only Northamptonshire specimens that I 

 have seen. 



20th. Seven degrees of frost. The falconer reports a female 

 Peregrine seen this morning close to the house at Lilford. 



23rd. Hundreds of House Martins nocking about the lee- 

 sides of the house at Lilford seeking protection from the bitter 

 N.E. wind. 



25th. I watched a pair of Coal Tits feeding their young in the 

 wall of a sunk fence close to the house for several minutes : the 

 only food that was brought to the brood during my observation 

 consisted of small green larvae, all taken from a neighbouring 

 beech-tree. Our Cuckoos, which were apparently in about their 

 average numbers at Lilford, and very clamorous till about the 

 11th inst., have become entirely silent, possibly absent, since the 

 present spell of wintry weather commenced. 



June. 



3rd. We found a nest of Spotted Flycatcher in the flower- 

 garden, with eggs, in a somewhat unusual situation — the centre of 

 a thick bush of variegated holly at about four feet from the ground. 



9th. I noticed more Swifts at Lilford than I ever remember 

 to have seen there before, except at the end of July. I must 

 mention that many summers pass without my observing more 

 than three or four of this species near our house till the period of 

 southward migration. On this day I must have seen fifty or 

 more over the river. The House Martins are still swarming 

 about the house (where they never build), although the wind has 

 veered to S.E., and the weather is warm. 



19th. Some fifty House Martins, all old birds, still about the 

 house at Lilford, though I cannot hear of a nest within a mile. 

 Flycatchers are comparatively scarce with us this year. 



21st. A pinioned Gadwall brought off a brood of eight young 

 at our park-pond. 



24th. One of our gamekeepers assured me that he had seen a 

 Kestrel stoop at and knock over a young rabbit that managed to 

 escape by struggling into a thick fence. The same keeper tells 

 me that there are more Nightjars about our woods than he ever 

 saw there during the last twenty-five years. 



