402 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



20th. — A bunch of Golden Plovers in a shop in Banbury. 



22nd.— A Nuthatch " trilling" at Bodicote. 



March 4th. — Yellow Bunting singing. Peewits on the fallows 

 with breeding notes. 



5th. — Greenfinch singing. Bramblings have failed to visit 

 us in North Oxon this winter ; perhaps they stayed in the 

 Chiltern beech woods, feeding on the remains of the enormous 

 crop of beech mast of last autumn. Where there are beech 

 trees here the ground was thickly strewn with mast, which 

 crackled underfoot ; and I saw one day sheep being fed on it 

 under the trees by the roadside near Tew. But I had no report 

 of Bramblings from the Chilterns. 



13th. — Saw a Chiffchaff as I was getting up ; there was 

 another (in song) at the back of the house. This is very early. 

 Examined a Crane shot at Adderbury {vide ' Zoologist,' 1913, 

 p. 276) and a Red-necked Grebe in winter dress shot in a flooded 

 meadow between the river and the canal at Hardwick, near 

 Banbury, on January 18th. This Grebe is a very rare visitor to 

 Oxfordshire, and I think to any inland part of this country. 



14th. — Saw a Grey Wagtail in the brook at Horley, below 

 the Mill. 



16th.— A few Fieldfares here the latter end of the winter, 

 and some flocks now. 



17th. — A cold spell and heavy snowstorm — melted. 



18th. — Walking up the Cherwell valley from Heyford to a 

 little above Somerton, I saw nine pairs of Wild Ducks — two on 

 the river bank and the rest on flood water. Breeding Ducks 

 have greatly increased of late years. Besides the many pairs of 

 Peewits on the uplands, there was a flock of about one hundred 

 (perhaps migrants) on a shallow flood. 



27th. — A flock of between one and two hundred Wood- 

 Pigeons— probably migrants — rose with Books from a field 

 drilled a short time before. 



29th. — Books did not build much before the middle of the 

 month. 



31st. — Song-Thrush's nest with young hatched. A Long- 

 tailed Tit's nest lined. 



A wet March, nearly four inches of rain. 



April 2nd. — About fifty Fieldfares flew over — north-west. 



