ORNITHOLOGY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 49 



10th. A flock of some twenty or more Herring Gulls, identified 

 by their cries, passed southerly at an immense height. 



12th. A very marked diminution in number of the Hirundines 

 about the river; both House Martins and Swallows have been 

 unusually abundant this summer, but very few of the former are 

 now to be seen, and the latter are becoming scarcer every day. 

 On the 17th and 18th insts., however, we were inundated by vast 

 numbers of Martins, and a considerable fresh flight of Swallows 

 coming from the north; these birds "rode out" the southerly 

 gale of the 20th with us, and remained without any perceptible 

 diminution or increase in their numbers till the 25th inst., under 

 which date I find in my journal: — "The river, from the house 

 downwards, is absolutely swarming with Hirundines." These 

 birds had almost entirely disappeared on Sept. 28th. 



22nd. Mr. Slater informed me that a young Ruff was shot at 

 Ditchford, and brought to him on this day ; he added, too, this 

 note : — " The remains of food in the gizzard and the bottom of 

 the oesophagus (which has no dilatation at its bottom end capable 

 of being called a crop) were as follows : — Three or four larvae of 

 some aquatic Ephemera, a grasshopper's hind leg, a great quantity 

 of remains of freshwater bivalves, two daddy-longlegs, a fat white 

 grub (coleopterous, I think), a black fly, much gravel and a good 

 deal of small animal matter, joints of legs of insects, &c, amongst 

 which a proportion of Algce — swallowed, no doubt, accidentally.'* 

 Three Teal, the first of the season taken on the decoy, brought in 

 with seventeen Mallard ; but the decoy-man tells me that five of 

 the former species made their first appearance about a week ago. 

 I have previously noted, in ' The Zoologist,' that the first 

 appearance of Teal in our locality is always accompanied, or very 

 shortly followed, by that of a Peregrine, and this experience was, 

 in this instance, confirmed by the appearance of a falcon in the 

 park yesterday. 



24th. I heard and saw the first Redwing of the season. 



29th. An adult female Pintail taken on the decoy, pinioned, 

 and placed in the aviary, where she became perfectly tame in a 

 few days. 



October. 



1st. Sudden appearance, on the river near the house, of a vast 

 number of Sand Martins, a species never very abundant in the 



