ORNITHOLOGY OF OXFORDSHIRE. 21 



enclosed courtyard at the back of a birdstuffer's house in the 

 High Street, Banbury. It was uninjured, but was easily caught. 

 I also obtained the skin of an albino Greenfinch, killed near 

 Oxford on or about the 2nd September. This specimen is white, 

 tinged with yellow more or less all over, except on the end of the 

 quill-feathers. The yellow is brightest on the shoulders and 

 the edges of the primaries and wing-quills, where an ordinary 

 bird has the brightest colours. Irides pink. Bill perhaps 

 rather paler than usual ; the legs and feet appear to have been 

 pale flesh-colour, claws very pale. 



8th. — News from Mr. Surman of a Dunlin shot at some 

 clay-pits at Summertown on the 3rd. 



10th. — Red Admiral Butterfly in the garden. 



12th. — A Peregrine Falcon shot at Boarstall Decoy to-day, 

 recorded in the ' Oxford Times.' 



16th. — News from Mr. Surman of a Green Sandpiper shot at 

 Sandford-on-Thames on the 8th, and a Great Crested Grebe on 

 Port Meadow stream on the 12th. 



22nd. — News from Mr. Fowler of an unusual number of Red- 

 polls in the birch-trees in the parks at Oxford, and that on the 

 previous day he saw a Water-Rail in a ditch at Kingham. 



23rd. — Song-Thrushes sing well. 



24th. — Singing well about 8 a.m. in a cold thick fog. Many 

 Bullfinches about. The fruit crop this year has been exception- 

 ally heavy. To say nothing of garden fruits, the crop of beech- 

 mast and acorns has been remarkable, in the case of the latter 

 with disastrous effects on the cattle in the fields where there are 

 oak-trees, although sheep and pigs have done well and not suf- 

 fered. The hedge-fruit is quite a sight — crabs, sloes (a very heavy 

 crop), blackberries, &c. — while the haws redden the big hedges. 



26th. — Song-Thrushes now singing grandly. Yesterday, and 

 this morning between 7 and 8 a.m., it was, as an old farmer 

 remarked, " quite a charm." 



28th. — News from Mr. Darbey of another Peregrine Falcon 

 (a bird of the year) shot at Boarstall yesterday. 



30th. — Bullfinches chanting three double notes. During a 

 day's shooting about Milcomb I met with Goldfinches three times. 

 One bird sang, but poorly. 



December 6th. — Examined at Mr. Bartlett's a well-pied 



