294 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



cornutus, Yarrell, but I was unable to identify it with any 

 certainty. 



24th. Heard a Green Woodpecker. Had a good view this 

 morning of a King Ouzel. When first noticed it was. on a piece 

 of open ground sloping to the river, and surrounded by whin 

 bushes. It afterwards flew up into some trees close to a farm- 

 house, where it was joined by two other birds, thrushes of some 

 kind, but whether of the same species or not I was too far off to 

 determine. 



25th. Noticed a pair of Bullfinches. These birds are, I 

 fancy, commoner here than they were. It is a cheering sight, 

 when passing along the country lanes in winter, to see a small 

 family party of these little beauties flitting on in front, their 

 bright colour sparkling like gems among the sober greys of the 

 hedges. Owing to the arrangement of the hues, few in number 

 and strongly contrasted, few birds show to greater advantage on 

 the wing. 



26th. Seven or eight Curlews on the mud-flats near the 

 church to-day. 



27th. First heard the Nightingale in Iken Wood. During 

 a space of sixteen years I have found the average date of arrival 

 of this bird, about here, to be April 18th. In only one instance, 

 excepting this year, has it appeared later than the 24th ; this was 

 in 1884, when I first heard it on the same day as in the present 

 year, viz., the 27th. The earliest arrival noted is April 10th, in 

 the year 1877. 



28th. Noticed a pair of Common Whitethroats at Blaxhall. 

 Humble Bees abroad in numbers. Among a number of young 

 Moles which had been recently taken from their nests, some, 

 equal in size to a full-grown Field Vole, were as yet without a 

 vestige of hair. On others, rather older, it was just beginning 

 to grow, and the skin had begun to assume a silvery grey look. Saw 

 a male Whinchat close to the water's edge, and near it a Wheatear. 

 The former, when in perfect plumage, is, I think, one of our 

 prettiest small birds, but to fully appreciate its beauty a close 

 view is necessary. The sober, but delicate and pleasing, tints of 

 its plumage harmonize particularly well, and are rendered the 

 more attractive by the arrangement of its markings. The flush 

 of rosy fawn on the breast, fading gradually to the palest buff, 

 has a beautiful effect when seen against a background of dark 



