22 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Blackbird. To judge from the plumage it was a female, and an 

 old one, as it had a dull orange bill. 



7th. — Very mild ; 50°. In the afternoon a Blackbird sang 

 fairly well. I had never previously heard one sing in December. 



8th.— The 'Field' of this date contains a notice by "F.M.C." 

 that a Grey Crow was shot at Henley-on-Thames on the 8th 

 October, and a Puffin was picked up alive but exhausted on the 

 20th November. 



12th. — Blackbird sang a little in a low tone ; 52°, with a 

 grey sky. 



13th. — Examined, at Mr. Bartlett's, a beautiful drake Shoveler 

 in the flesh, which had been shot on a pond at Wroxton. It was 

 with another " less brightly coloured." This is a rare Duck in 

 the north of the county. 



20th. — Winter aconite flowering. 



22nd. — Blackbird sang for some time in the afternoon. Song 

 perfect, but rather low in tone. Temperature at the time 38° ; 

 air still. 



27th. — Furious gale at night, and much rain. 



28th. — Very rough stormy weather. While waiting for a 

 Partridge-drive near Hook Norton, I counted eight Magpies as 

 they came over a ridge of high ground in front of the guns. 



29th. — Galanthus elwesi in bloom. 



30th. — Rained all day and poured all night, with a furious 

 gale from the north. 



31st. — The gale gradually subsided, having done much 

 damage. It knocked several conifers here out of the straight. 

 The floods this morning are the biggest we have had for thirteen 

 years. Some cottages with a foot of water in them. At Wickham 

 Mill, on the Sorbrook, the occupier, who was born there, and 

 has lived there all his life, being now fifty-seven, said the flood 

 to-day was the highest he had known, and came up to the mill- 

 door. Twenty years ago this would have meant flooded meadows 

 for weeks, and hundreds of wildfowl ; but now, with so much 

 drainage, floods, although more frequent, run off very quickly. 



(To be continued. 



