NOTES FROM MID-HANTS. 297 



harm argentatus, visited us on the 5th, with the Black-headed 

 Gulls, of which we calculated that over fifty per cent, had the 

 brown head in some stage of development. On the 11th I put 

 up three Common Snipe and one Jack ; they usually leave us 

 before this date. On the 12th Wheatears arrived on a bare warren 

 some three miles from Winchester — a favourite breeding-place ; 

 out of half-a-dozen seen only one was a female. On this date 



1 again observed a female Peewit shaping her nest with a curious 

 upward motion of the breast, as last year (see Zool. Jan. 1893). 

 On the 19th the Chiffchaff arrived, and was singing loudly at 



2 p.m. The Rev. P. H. Owen reported its arrival at Colden 

 Common on the 20th. I also saw on the 19th a cock Cirl Bunting, 

 Emberiza cirlus, and a small flock of Golden Plover, on migration, 

 near Compton. On the 20th a clutch of Rook's eggs was taken, 

 and I was therefore prepared to find eggs on the 21st, when 

 I inspected a large rookery. One clutch of five eggs was much 

 incubated, but most nests contained from two to three eggs. On 

 the same date we found two Coot's eggs. On the 22nd a pair of 

 Tree Pipits arrived, and I watched the cock singing on the wing 

 for some time ; and, in the afternoon, a solitary Sand Martin, 

 Cotyle riparia, was hawking up and down the water outside the 

 school bathing-place at Winchester. On this date — an unusually 

 late one with us — I saw the last " winter snipe." On the 23rd 

 I found a Mistle-thrush's nest with three eggs; Mr. C. B. 

 Cobb reported one Wood Pigeon's egg on the 25th ; and on the 

 26th I found the first clutch of Peewits' eggs, considerably in- 

 cubated. Mr. R. C. K. Ensor heard the Willow Wren at Fisher's 

 Pond on the 28th, but this was a late date, as Mr. E. F. Atkins 

 had observed it at Andover on the 19th. The Rev. P. H. Owen 

 reported the Blackcap from Colden Common on the 29th, and 

 Mr. W. J. Horn, writing to * The Field,' reported Stone Curlews 

 ** in Hampshire " on the 31st. On the 24th Mr. Chalkley received 

 a Pied Woodpecker from Micheldever, a bird included in the 

 schedule of the Wild Birds Protection Act. 



April. 



I was in Surrey till the 18th, but Mr. Atkins, of Andover, 

 reported the following arrivals : — Cuckoo, 4th ; Sedge Warbler, 

 10th; Swallow, 12th; House Martin, 16th. On the 18th I 

 observed several Stone Curlews near Whitchurch ; they were very 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XVIII. — AUG. 1894. 2 A 



