OBNITHOLOGY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 21 5 



27th. A Lesser Black-backed Gull, in adult plumage, hovered 

 for some time over my pinioned Gulls in the kitchen-garden. 



June. 



8th. Several broods of Partridges hatched out on 29th ult. 

 reported to me to-day. 



10th. A brood of Pied Woodpeckers have left the breeding 

 hole in Lilford Lynches. 



11th. House Martins, hitherto remarkable for their scarcity 

 this year, swarming about the house at Lilford. 



12th. A Sky Lark is sitting upon a nest full of eggs on a strip 

 of grass of not more than four feet in width, between the high- 

 road and foot-path near Achurch. 



23rd. Mr. George Fitzwilliam sent me a curiously-coloured 

 variety of Carrion, or possibly Grey Crow, stuffed, for inspection, 

 with the information that it had haunted the park at Milton, 

 Peterborough, for two years, and was shot in May last on account 

 of depredations amongst poultry. This specimen has a dark 

 brown head ; the rest of the plumage is of a light buff or cream- 

 colour, approaching to white on lower breast and belly. 



24th. A Green Sandpiper was seen at Lilford Locks to-day. 



29th. The decoy-man to-day reported to me that he had heard 

 the call of a Quail near Tichmarsh on 3rd inst., and more than 

 once since that day, in the meadows near the decoy. 



Before bringing my remarks for June to a close, I must 

 mention that in some very interesting notes sent to me by the 

 Eev. H. H. Slater, who is now Rector of Thornhaugh, near 

 Wansford, he alludes to the frequency and the nesting of the 

 Grasshopper Warbler in that neighbourhood, in April and May 

 of this year, and tells me that he heard and clearly identified a 

 Wood Lark singing in a clearing planted with young larches, in 

 Bedford Purlieus, on April 24th. In my experience, the Wood 

 Lark is a rare bird in this county at any time of year, and this is 

 the first occurrence that has come to my knowledge on undoubted 

 authority for more than twenty-five years. The Grasshopper 

 Warbler is (though not common in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of Lilford) certainly much more abundant in our county than was 

 formerly the case, as my next note goes to prove. 



