8 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



August 3rd. — The drought continues with great severity. 

 Wheat harvest began here on the 24th ult. Birds (Starlings 

 and Robins included) have eaten great quantities of bush-fruit. 



10th. — The county is wonderfully brown. Apples falling off 

 the trees ; plums will not swell properly ; butter is very scarce ; 

 outdoor peaches already ripe. The air is wonderfully clear and 

 dry, and the golden mellow light of the afternoons remarkably 

 beautiful. But it is the most destructive drought experienced 

 for many years. In proof of the dryness of the air, it may be 

 mentioned that it is difficult to harvest beans, the pods bursting 

 when they are touched. Wasps are scarce, strange to say. 



11th. — Many Swifts, noisy at evening. 



13th.— Fewer Swifts. 



loth. — Still a few Swifts. A good rain fell at last. 



23rd. — The drought has resumed its sway. Harvest finished. 

 Blackbirds very destructive to ripening plums. 



25th. — On a barley-stubble, very foul, and gay with poppies 

 which have flowered since the barley was cut, I saw a flock of 

 over two hundred Turtle-Doves, feeding almost in the manner of 

 Starlings. There is a spinney of ash-poles and thorn-bushes 

 near there, where some are bred, and all these birds were 

 probably bred in the district. The Turtle-Dove has increased 

 very much in North Oxon of late years. Twenty years ago we 

 considered it rather uncommon. 



26th.— In the ' Field ' of this date it is stated by Mr. J. M. 

 Marshall, of Wallingford, that a pair of Hobbies had recently 

 bred in Brightwell Park, and that a keeper had shot one old and 

 two young birds. Mr. Darbey afterwards told me he had a female 

 from Brightwell this month. I was talking to-day to a man 

 (about thirty years of age) about the decrease in the number of 

 Fieldfares which visit us, when he told me that when quite a boy 

 he killed forty-five at three shots. 



27th. — Flock of about a dozen Mistle-Thrushes. 



30th. — Another rain ; the drought somewhat abated. Mr. 

 Bartlett showed me two Crossbills which were shot in the larches 

 on the hill at Bodicote in the late autumn of 1897. They were 

 in very fresh plumage, of a brick-red mottled with yellow ; the 

 latter colour more clearly defined in one than in the other. Also 

 a variety of the Hedge-Sparrow; it had two or three white 



