CONTRIBUTIONS TO AN AVIFAUNA OF BADEN. 175 



Commoner than might be supposed, principally near villages, in 

 fields, orchards, and on the edge of beech woods, in company 

 with Jays and Missel Thrushes. 



Jynx torquilla. Abundant in Baden and the Bavarian Pa- 

 latinate. 



Alcedo ispida. Visits the lake of the Stadtgarten now and 

 then, but generally leaves the same day. A pair breeds regularly 

 on the Alb, on one or the other side of the Soldiers' bathing 

 establishment, but the nests are seldom unmolested. They are 

 very shy, and the young disappear from the district as soon as 

 they can fly. Another pair haunts the " Bibersgrund " (Beavers' 

 meadow), opposite Maxan, on the Rhine. 



Upupa epops. Not rare in the plain on both sides of the 

 Rhine. One pair comes every year to the Wildpark. 



Cuculns canorus. Generally distributed. Occasionally lays 

 in the nest of the Icterine Warbler. 



Strix jiammea. Observed once or twice ; used to be frequent 

 at Scheibenhard, near Karlsruhe. 



Asio otus. Perhaps the commonest species. Hardwald, &c. 

 The peasants imagine the hooting of Owls predicts rain, because 

 they feel the approaching cold : a superstition like this is alluded 

 to in an English nursery-rhyme. 



Athene noctua. Also not rare. 



Buteo vulgaris. Common, breeding in the Wildpark, but 

 much persecuted. It is rather scarce in the Bavarian Palatinate. 



Aquila clanga. I may record the capture of a specimen (as 

 this has probably not been done) near Wiesloch, in the winter of 

 1887 ; it was afterwards sent to the Zoological Gardens of 

 Karlsruhe. 



Astur palumbarius. Observed several times, chiefly in autumn. 

 An adult female was shot at Karlsruhe in 1886. 



Accipiter nisus. More numerous than the Kestrel, at least near 

 the capital, probably on account of its wariness and swift flight. 

 It is seldom that these birds fly into one's hands, but such was 

 the case with one, which was caught, while pursuing a Redstart, 

 by a person in the street. 



Milvus ictinus. Slightly rarer than the Buzzard. — M. migrans, 

 A specimen from near Karlsruhe lived twenty-three years in con- 

 finement, and may be alive still. 



Tinnunculus alaudarius. — I am told the country people, in 



