NOTES FROM OXFORDSHIRE. 93 



sang his " trui trui trui," but not very full. A flock of fifty or 

 sixty Meadow Pipits in a meadow (some little parties at Bloxham 

 in the morning) ; when flushed they, or most of them, settled in 

 trees for a few minutes, which a recent writer says they never do. 

 27th. — Kingham ; another little flock of Meadow Pipits. The 

 migration of this bird must be in full swing. 



April 3rd. — Put up a Jack Snipe at my feet from a ditch 

 running into the Sorbrook. 10th. — Redstarts have arrived in 

 some numbers. (On May 1st I noted that they were in greater 

 abundance than ever ; (this bird seems to arrive in steadily in- 

 creasing numbers each year.) Being over the borders, in 

 Warwickshire, below Edgehill, on April 2nd, to see the Parlia- 

 mentary Steeple] Chase, I noticed the Lesser Whitethroat in song 

 — a very early arrival; it appeared here on the 11th. On the 

 10th saw a pair of Barred Woodpeckers in some big alders on 

 the Sorbrook bank towards Broughton. Tree Creeper in song. 

 16th.— Saw a White Wagtail in a sheep-fold. Peewit's nest of 

 four hard-set eggs on ploughed field ; nest merely a hollow with 

 a few short bits of flattened manure- straw. 18th. — A White 

 Wagtail on the banks of the Cherwell at Bodicote. An old farmer's 

 widow, who formerly lived between here and Woodstock, knows 

 the Wryneck, and enquired of me lately if the "Cuckoo's mate" 

 had arrived, describing its note at the same time. Now at the 

 present day the Wryneck is a rare bird in Oxon, and this is 

 further evidence of its comparative abundance years ago, which 

 I have mentioned before. 24th. — Common Sandpiper on the Sor- 

 brook near Broughton. A little flock of Meadow Pipits; this is 

 late for these passing migrants. 



May 3rd. — Saw, at Mr. Bartlett's, a Grey Shrike, apparently 

 adult; it showed a little white on the secondaries and a good 

 patch when the coverts were brushed aside a little ; but the rump 

 and upper tail- coverts were wonderfully dark grey. It was sent 

 from Hook Norton on April I lth, a late date for this bird to 

 occur in Oxon. " F. W. L." records seeing four or five Barred 

 Woodpeckers in an elm near Norham Gardens, Oxford, early in 

 the morning of April 2nd. He has seen them in St. Giles in the 

 daytime (' Oxford Times') ; I am acquainted with this observer's 

 name. A Bittern was shot in the Windrush in the early part of 

 March, and taken to Mr. Wells, of Burford ('Oxford Journal'). 

 7th,— Flocks of Fieldfares below Buttermilk Hall, near Barford, 



