NOTES FROM OXFORDSHIRE. 347 



Godstow and Binsey on the 12th May, and Lesser Redpolls were 

 seen in Port Meadow as late as the 15th April. 



17th. News from Mr. Arthur H. Macpherson that on visiting 

 Oxford he had examined, at Mr. Darbey's, a male Pied Flycatcher, 

 which was rescued by a gardener of St. John's College from a cat 

 on the 25th April. 



18th. The snow which fell all last night lay three or four 

 inches deep early this morning. A very hard frost this night. 



21st. Heard the song of the Grasshopper Warbler between 

 Bloxham and Barford. 



27th. Thirteenth consecutive day with rain, or snow, and cold 

 winds. 



28th. A Chiffchaff's nest with seven eggs, in Mr. F. C. Aplin's 

 garden at Bodicote, was built on an ivy-topped wall; the nest was 

 about two feet from the ground, on the bare stems of the ivy and 

 a foundation of rubbish lodged there. 



June. 

 7th. When at Kingham with Mr. Fowler, we found nest of 

 Grasshopper Warbler on outskirts of Oddington Ashes, just over 

 the Gloucestershire boundary, containing three young birds and 

 two addled eggs. We also heard a Nightingale near Churchill 

 Heath Wood, and another in the wood, and saw a pair of Wood 

 Wrens. Have had news of adult Night Heron shot on the 

 Windrush at Burford on the 27th May ; also of a Red-backed 

 Shrike seen near Filkins, in that neighbourhood on May 22nd. 



July. 



6th. Heard the song of the Grasshopper Warbler close to a 

 young plantation on the edge of the heath at Epwell. 



11th. Examined a colony of Sand Martins in a pit of pecu- 

 liarly fine white sand at a hill near Todmarton (a limestone hill 

 capped with sand), and counted about 180 burrows, although the 

 pit is only about twenty yards long by twelve wide and ten to 

 fifteen deep. Saw two Kingfishers at the Fulling Mill, the first 

 I have since the frost. News of a Curlew seen flying over low 

 down near Bloxham on the 7th. 



19th. The scarcity of Swallows and Martins, consequent on 

 the severe weather in May, is now apparent. 



30th, The 'Banbury Guardian' of this date contains an 



