460 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



off or rifling an ungathered cone, Crossbills often hang head 

 downwards, and in all sorts of positions, and they recover them- 

 selves with an upward swing, like a gymnast on a parallel bar. 

 As they work about among the thicker growth of twigs their 

 action is a sort of half-fly, half-leap, but they also climb in a 

 way that suggests a Parrot. Although they feed in silence, 

 when two or three fly to another tree they call to one another 

 with a bright note sounding like "chep" or "chip," and quite 

 peculiar to them. Their flight is fast, strong, and direct, and 

 this foggy morning their strong wings made a noise as they flew. 

 Sociable birds, they often fed within a few inches of one another, 

 and there were five in one tree-top once. Besides feeding on 

 the cones, they seemed to be biting at something on the twigs, 

 perhaps insects of some kind. Two days later, when I went to 

 look for them, they had gone. 



10th. — Many Snipe reported from the flooded meadows near 

 the junction of the Sorbrook, Swere, and Cherwell. 



11th. — A fine male Stonechat on the hedge of a stubble-field 

 at North Newington. Larks still singing. Saw two fields with 

 the barley still out. 



14th. — During a day after the hounds on foot I could not 

 see a single Fieldfare, and have seen no Eedwings yet. There 

 are no haws to speak of this year. A good many Linnets 

 about. 



16th. — Mistle-Thrush sings well. Violets in flower. 



18th. — Mistle- and Song-Thrush sang. 



19th. — Many Linnets still frequent Milcombe gorse. 



21st.— Winter aconite in full bloom, true to its day. 



22nd. — A Woodcock in Milcombe bushes, and a Jack- Snipe 

 and two or three Snipe at South Newington ; probably flooded 

 out in the bigger valleys, for they are seldom seen in any num- 

 bers up the little Swere valley. About fifty Fieldfares and three 

 huge flocks of Wood-Pigeons, one of from one to two thousand, 

 and the others of about a thousand each. Lark singing. 

 Mistle-Thrush in fine song and plentiful. A fair amount of 

 Song-Thrush music now, but not so much as one might expect 

 from the number of birds still about ; possibly some of them are 

 only on migration. 



27th. — Slight snow ; a mist hangs over the soaked country. 



