450 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



time it worked slowly up a reach of the river against the wind, 

 flying quite low, and then, getting up into the air, it dropped 

 back on the wind to work up again. Several times it dipped in 

 the water with its beak, but I could not see that it took fish ; 

 from the quick turns and twists it made in the air I thought it 

 was catching insects. Sometimes it hovered, and one weedy bit 

 of river it always passed over very slowly, and only a few inches 

 above the surface, beating its wings a good deal, and making 

 little darts at something. Its turns and twists were executed 

 with great quickness, and it was quicker on the wing and 

 extended its wings more than the marine Terns. There were 

 many Swifts around it, but it did not suffer much in comparison 

 of wing-power, though of course not so fast. Swallows mobbed 

 it. When all this district was marsh — not so very long ago — it 

 is very probable that the Black Tern was a breeding species, and 

 that the birds which so often come up the Thames in spring are 

 revisiting an old haunt. I saw a flock of quite a hundred Peewits, 

 but only two or three mobbing birds ; possibly some of the late 

 young were drowned. Practically all the eggs, and the young 

 which could not fly, of the ground-building birds must have been 

 destroyed over a large extent of country — for miles, indeed, in 

 various directions from Oxford. I heard one Corn-Crake, and saw 

 several Herons, all flying towards Clanfield, where there is, or 

 was, a small heronry. Mr. Darbey had a female Hobby, trapped 

 at Sandford Brake on the 9th ; the male escaped. 



30th.— Saw and heard a Eeed-Warbler in South Newington 

 osiers. It is very uncommon in this part of the county. 



Eain to the amount of 3*85 in. fell on nine days this 

 month. 



July 1st.— Mr. W. W. Fowler told me that the Barred Wood- 

 pecker had bred this year in an old dead stump in the Botanic 

 Garden, Oxford. He had seen the young being fed. 



4th. — Cuckoos very scarce this summer. I have heard none 

 since the latter end of June. News of a nest of young Pied 

 Woodpeckers nearly ready to fly in Wychwood Forest. 



10th.— Goldfinch building in apple-tree ; probably a second 

 nest. 



11th.— Curiously enough, House-Martins are more numerous 

 than usual. 



