NOTES FROM MID-HANTS. 299 



young, and Yellowhammers eggs. Mr. Turle found three nests 

 of the Long-eared Owl near Whitchurch, one with young almost 

 ready to fly, one with six eggs, and one with five eggs. Mr. B.C. 

 Cohb found young Barn Owls, two nests of the Great Tit, and one 

 nest of five Jay's eggs, incubated, in the New Forest. Mr. G. V, 

 Clarke found a clutch of Marsh Tit's eggs, much incubated. Eggs 

 of the Creeper and Willow Wren were found at Basingstoke on 

 this date by Mr. A. S. Bates. On May 2nd, Mr. Turle found 

 three Snipe's nests, each with four eggs ; and Mr. K. C. K. Ensor, 

 a Whitethroat's nest, with five eggs. On the 3rd, I saw the first 

 Spotted Flycatcher, Muscicapa grisola. On the 5th, Mr. Turle 

 found eggs of the Sparrowhawk ; and on the 7th, a Wood Lark's 

 nest, with five eggs, in the New Forest. On the 6th, Mr. G. B. 

 Cobb found young Yellowhammers; and a Nightingale's nest 

 was found, in one of the few spots in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood where this bird builds, with three eggs. On the 9th, I found 

 a very-loosely constructed Song Thrush's nest, with no lining of 

 mud. Mr. Cobb had found a similar nest on the 8th ; and a 

 correspondent of ' The Standard,' writing from Alresford on 

 April 3rd, remarked that the same was the case in that place, the 

 extreme drought having prevented the birds from obtaining the 

 necessary materials. On the 10th, I found young Coal Tits. 

 Heed Warblers had begun to build on the 11th, and the first egg 

 was reported on the 19th. Mr. Stares found Nightjar's eggs on 

 the 15th. On the 11th, we found a nest containing six eggs of 

 the Tree Pipit; and on the 13th, two eggs of the Turtle Dove 

 were reported. On the 22nd, a nest containing young and eggs 

 of the Long-eared Owl was found in a wood four miles to the 

 west of Winchester, where, as I had long suspected, this species 

 breeds. On the 11th, I saw a solitary " Black "-headed Gull play- 

 ing with some rooks in the wind above Owslebury Down. On the 

 23rd, I observed the first Wood Wren, Phylloscopus sibilatrix, I 

 have ever seen in this district, near Fisher's Pond ; on this date 

 I found eggs of the Swift and Flycatcher. On the 25th, Mr. John 

 Stares, of Porchester, saw a Spoonbill, Platalea leucorodia, as 

 recorded in * The Zoologist,' 1893, p. 268. Mr. Ensor found a 

 Cuckoo's egg in a Beed Warbler's nest on the 24th. The above 

 detailed, and, I am afraid, somewhat tedious list of dates, I have 

 copied out to show what a great difference a dry season like that 

 of March, April, ajid May, 1893, makes to the times of nesting. 



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