466 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



4.55. — Hear another bird fly by. No cry. Think it was a 

 Plover. 



Then come 1, 3 (it is now 5 o'clock), 3, 2 (peculiar cry close 

 by me. I think a Great Plover. If so it is a new note — at least, 

 newly noted. Like cry of Moor-hen, but tone of Plover. Sudden, 

 trumpety), 2, 3, 2. 



5.10.— 1, 1. (Great noise of Partridges.) 



Very cold as the morning breaks ; a hoar-frost on fern and 

 heather. A mist hanging over the earth. 



5.25. — There has been since 5.15, and still continues to be, 

 a great noise of Partridges all about, and now great trumpeting 

 of Pheasants. 



5.35. — No more Great Plovers up till now, and yet the 

 morning flight home must have ceased. Only twenty birds, 

 therefore, as against forty-nine on September 26th. Yet I now 

 command all points, and find it difficult to imagine that any 

 great number can have flown up without my seeing them, or at 

 least hearing the wings. A search with the glasses, however, 

 reveals twenty-eight birds amongst the heather — as many, or 

 more, as I could count one morning when there were a great 

 number concealed in it. As I heard the ground-note of the 

 birds, first some way off, and then much nearer, probably in the 

 place itself, it seems as if some of them had walked, or rather 

 run, home. 



Wren hopping cheerfully about the frosty bracken. 



Pheasants making a great noise and seem very active, which 

 has not been the case on previous mornings. May have relation 

 to the frost and mist. 



Have now walked to my other post by the plateau. 



A mist lies over everything, obscuring the sun. This seems 

 to affect the Peewits (probably birds generally). No Peewits 

 seen till 6.40. Then only two, flying, who soon go down. Later 

 a small flock go past, but, from then till returning home about 8, 

 I see no more. An entire absence of the joyous circling in the 

 higher air which on the previous fine bright mornings I had seen. 



No Starlings (I think). 



Song of the Lark not heard till 7. 



Note of Great Green Woodpecker at 6.45, but had heard it, 

 I think, a little before. 



