NOTES FROM LEICESTERSHIRE. 453 



Loughborough ; it had been attacking the Sand Martins flying 

 over a brick-yard pond ; it had an old wound on the tarsus. 



June 6th. A lot of water out in the Soar Valley. To reach 

 my old hunting ground, had to wade half a mile. Found a Sky 

 Lark's egg on the top of a mole-hill. 



June 18th. Young Lesser Whitethroats pretty common in a 

 large garden. Turtle Doves in fair numbers in the wooded 

 districts. 



Aug. 27th. A few Hawfinches about the allotment gardens 

 by the Leicester Canal. 



Sept. 2nd. Three Hawks came out of a wood; one, a very 

 small one, either a Merlin or a Hobby, probably the latter. 



Sept L9th. Two adult Herring Gulls flying low over the 

 streets of Loughborough. A young Great Crested Grebe shot on 

 the Soar on the 18th, and a Common Tern on the 19th. 



Nov. 8th. A few Snipe, Hooded Crows, and Lesser Redpolls 

 about. 



Nov. 12th. A Water Rail picked up under the telegraph- 

 wires. The finder named it an " Osier-piper." 



Dec. 26th. Wood Pigeons very numerous in Walton Holm. 

 Residents in the district say that these birds come down from the 

 Charnwood Hills every winter ; they certainly are more numerous 

 at that season than at any other time. 



1892. 



Jan. 10th. A friend shot a female Sparrowhawk; soon after 

 he fired, the male appeared in a neighbouring spinney, calling 

 continually. Loth to kill him, my friend eventually had to drive 

 him away with snowballs. A few Mallards visited the river at 

 dusk. Five Wigeons were seen a day or two previously. 



March 27 th. Heard several Curlews in the wet meadows by 

 the Soar, near Barrow ; also a few Hooded Crows. In the leafless 

 hedges Chiffchaffs were not uncommon. It snowed heavily in the 

 afternoon. Flushed a pair of Teal, and saw about twenty ducks 

 that looked like Wigeon. 



During April a few flocks of mature Black-headed Gulls 

 passed down the Soar. I examined an example killed in a muddy 

 ploughed field. 



April 17th. Saw the first Redstart; a Red-backed Shrike also 

 was heard, in an uncultivated osier-bed. 



