BIRDS OF OXFORDSHIRE. 243 



one was seen by a friend of his flying about the tower of Wood 

 Eaton church on Sept. 28th, 1889. This is unusually late. 



Pied Flycatcher. — Mr. W. W. Fowler wrote me word that 

 a pair were seen in the Parks at Oxford on April 30th, 1889; 

 they went on at once. 



Dipper. — I saw at Broughton, on March 9th, 1890, a bird 

 which I have not the least doubt was a Dipper. The stream, 

 which used to work the now disused mill, is an attractive looking 

 place for this species, the banks high and steep, and overhung 

 with bushes, the under-banks shelving, and about the bed of the 

 stream some large stones, roots, &c. As I crossed the bridge 

 the bird rose from this stony part and sped down stream in true 

 Dipper fashion. It settled on a bit of shelving bank further down, 

 where I could just see it fidgeting about with the usual jerky 

 motions. But still its head was turned from me, so that I could 

 not see its white breast, and as I impatiently moved forward to get 

 a clearer view, away it went, and the stream is there so overgrown 

 with bushes that I lost sight of it, and could not find it again. 



Redwing. — On March 9th, 1889, the day after a heavy gale, 

 with snow and rain, Fieldfares were very numerous, and Redwings 

 even more so, swarming in the meadows. The afternoon was 

 mild and sunny, and a perfect babel of twittering came from the 

 flocks of birds sitting on the tops of the tall trees in the hedge- 

 rows of one long meadow in this parish — a very favourite haunt 

 of both species. Mingled with the twittering were a few sweeter 

 notes of the Redwings, and an occasional "qui qui qui" of the 

 Fieldfares. One Redwing, sitting by itself, sang its song, " tui 

 tui tui tri tri tri " (as rendered by Mr. Howard Saunders), very 

 sweetly. Though possessing much less variety than the Song 

 Thrush, the notes are if anything sweeter, and much wilder. 

 On the 30th, when I observed a good-sized flock of Fieldfares, I 

 could see no Redwings, and I have often remarked that the latter 

 are not seen with us so late in the spring as the former, which 

 often stay till after the middle of April and sometimes still later. 



Blackbird. — Especially abundant in the autumn of 1889. 

 Mr. Foster Melliar counted thirteen cock Blackbirds on the lawn 

 at North Aston Hall on Nov. 25th. 



Ring Ouzel. — I examined, in the birdstuffer's shop at Chip- 

 ping Norton, two males shot near there in the spring of 1890. 

 One of them was much pied about the head (which is not at all 



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