NOTES FROM MID-HANTS. 13 



A. H. Baring tells me he saw some Gulls on a ploughed field at 

 Alresford. 



November. 



The winter Snipe arrived in large numbers on the 3rd ; and 

 on that date two immature Herring Gulls, Larus argentatus, 

 visited us with the others. On the 5th I saw the last House 

 Martin, Chelidon urbica ; on the 17th the last Swallow, Hirundo 

 rustica, and on the 22nd four Sand Martins, Cotyle riparia. On 

 the 25th a correspondent of the ' Hampshire Independent' saw a 

 " Swallow" at Romsey. On the 13th, and on several subsequent 

 days, I visited a small hazel-coppice, to see the vast flocks of 

 Starlings that congregate there to roost. Every twig in the 

 coppice was lined with birds as with leaves. The whole place 

 was black with birds, and on disturbing them they got up, layer 

 after layer, with a noise like the breaking of a vast wave. We 

 could hear the roar of their combined chattering two miles off. 

 On the 28th a female Dipper, Cinclus aquaticus, was shot at 

 St. Cross by a man who was snipe-shooting. According to the 

 Eev. J. E. Kelsall's 'List of Hampshire Birds,' this will be the 

 third identified specimen from Hants. Rumours as to its breeding 

 in the New Forest are apparently without foundation. I saw two 

 Water Rails on the 17 th — a bird that escapes observation from 

 its skulking habits. It has bred at Avington, and does so every 

 year at Newton Stacey (W. H. Turle). 



December. 

 Writing from Alresford, on the 9th, the Hon. A. H. Baring 

 reported having just seen a Peregrine, Falco peregrinus, "which 

 had been about nearly all the year." L irge flocks of Peewits, 

 Vanellus vulgaris, were to be seen flying up and down the valley 

 at an immense height. I observed a large migration of Wood 

 Pigeons on the 18th. No Wigeon, Mareca penelope, have been 

 seen at Alresford this year (Hon. A. H. Baring in litt.), though 

 Mr. Turle has seen some this winter on the Test; but Mr. Chalkley 

 received an albino hen Wild Duck from Alresford ; the bird was 

 too long to admit of its being a call-duck, and a gentleman says 

 he recognised it as a "flapper" amongst a brood of ordinary 

 Wild Ducks. 



