448 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



2nd.- Lesser Whitethroat common and noisy. Kestrel had 

 four eggs at "Bignall." The Sparrow-Hawk bred in 1902 in a 

 small belt of spruces between here and Barford, and the year 

 before in the spinney by the brook here, so low down that the 

 nest could be touched by any one standing on the ground. With 

 every one's hand against it this bird is becoming very un- 

 common. 



4th. — Floods everywhere. Garden-Warbler and Whitethroat. 



5th. — News of a Bittern shot near Eynsham last winter. 



6th. — Country — uplands and all — very wet ; great floods all 

 down the Cherwell valley ; very stormy weather. 



7th. — Violent hailstorm between here and Banbury, but did 

 not reach us ; it cut the leaves off the trees, and hail like this 

 must surely kill some small birds. Floods very big. The Long- 

 tailed Tit, like some other resident species, seems unusually 

 abundant this year. A friend told me he had found no fewer 

 than five nests just round his house, South Newington Hill, and 

 added that he had hardly ever seen more than one in any year 

 previously. 



8th. — Shot a few young Books. They are rather early, and 

 there were some strong flyers. One with a white chin and the 

 distal half of the lower mandible white. A Wryneck has been 

 about the Paddock-walk for a week. No rain all day ; the 24th 

 ult. was the last fine day. 



9th. — There are three if not four Wrynecks about the village 

 — an unprecedented circumstance, for the Wryneck is almost a 

 rarity here now. Torrents of rain again, and the lower part of 

 the village flooded. 



12th. — The last two days cold and wet. This morning almost 

 a frost, and we gladly left home for a month. 



Bainfall, 5*05 in. fell in seventeen days. A dry warm May 

 is always desired here ! 



June 14th. — I can only see one Swallow about these premises. 

 It is reported that 2*9 in. of rain fell at Oxford to-day. 



16th. — Floods. The pastures " squelch " as you walk, with 

 muddy water ; the furrows are full of water, the brooks brimming, 

 and the low meadows flooded. Maximum temperature sometimes 

 below 50°. 



19th. — In a fine interval I examined the Sand-Martin colony 



