386 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



to the marsh ditches where Gammarus and probably small 

 Sticklebacks have attractions for them. Off and on, all the 

 summer, two or three Spoonbills were generally to be seen. 



At 8.15 p.m. a Swift and a Bat were flying around together. 



Sixteen Geese were observed to fly over the town on June 18th. 

 Having seen Bernacle-Geese moving aforetime in the second 

 and third weeks of this month {vide ' Zoologist,' 1913, p. 364), I 

 am inclined to place these down to the same species. 



Several hundred Eooks passed over, coming from the east, 

 on June 18th, a rather unusual date. 



A pair of Blue-Tits nesting in a well-used letter-box ; a pair 

 of Coal-Tits nesting in the top of a beehive. 



The Water-Voles have a flourishing colony in my ditch at 

 St. Olaves :) they are the jolliest of little fellows, and are perfectly 

 reconciled to my society. They tumble out of their holes when 

 the tide falls, both early morning and later in the day, spending 

 the hottest part of the day in their snug retreats burrowed well 

 upwards in the bank. At high water their front doors are a 

 yard below the surface. They come out for scraps and appear 

 to appreciate a nibble at apple parings and tomato skins as a 

 change of diet from succulent grass stems and tender reeds. 

 Everything is passed, Squirrel-fashion, by the fore-paws to the 

 mouth. One day in June a splash at the stern of my boat 

 announced the tumbling in of a young Water-Vole. I looked 

 out and saw the old lady with what I took to be an elder son — 

 half-grown. It may be the farmer's dog Mike had bereaved the 

 old Voles of the others in the family, or a Jack that often 

 frequents the ditch. Mother Vole began to swim, the old male 

 sat on the opposite bank breakfasting on moist sweet grass- 

 stems. The younger followed her, and came up with her in the 

 middle of the ditch, when she dived : he swam back to the spot 

 where he started. The dam popped up again and returned to 

 him, evidently giving instructions as well as orders. The 

 youngster seemed petulant and frisked a bit. Then out she 

 swam again, the young one following, his teeth fast to the fur on 

 the lower part of her back. When in the middle she dived, but 

 the youth did not, but turned back and swam to the mud. 

 Again she decoyed him into the middle of the ditch, when 

 suddenly turning, she seized him by the fur at the back of the 





