NOTES ON THE ORNITHOLOGY OF OXFORDSHIRE. 403 



9th. — Flock of Fieldfares passed north-west; and a large 

 number assembled in some trees. Little parties of Meadow- 

 Pipits about. 



10th. — Young Song-Thrushes flown. 



11th. — Snowed nearly all day, but most of it melted at 

 night. 



12th. — Hedges getting green, but migrants almost absent. 



14th. — A clutch of five Crows' eggs brought in. 



17th.— Two Swallows. 



19th. — A Peewit's nest on a very " stale " ploughing, placed 

 in a furrow at the lower edge of a " land," was set up high, and 

 was conspicuous from a distance. It was a substantial nest of 

 stubble, grass, and squitch stems, eight inches across all over, — a 

 bed of material, an inch thick in the middle, and the lower side 

 of the nest (field on a hill side) built up to fully three inches 

 high ; the upper side a little lower. The land is stiff and the 

 weather this month has been very wet. The four eggs were 

 smeared all over with mud, being thus the same colour as the 

 ground and the nest. They were hard set. Of two other nests 

 (empty), one was hollowed out in the soil, the other a neat nest 

 of stubble, &c, smaller than the one with eggs. Six pairs of 

 birds about, and some young may have been hatched, for one 

 bird settled close to me and staggered a little. 



20th.— Tree-Pipit. Six Swallows. 



21st. — About a dozen Willow- Wrens and five Chiffchaffs. 



22nd. — Cuckoo. 



23rd.— Redstart. 



24th. — A Grey Wagtail's nest with eggs found at the old 

 spot on the Evenlode. Lesser Whitethroat. 



25th. — One House-Martin and five Sand-Martins flying with 

 Swallows over a good meadow, now a rush-grown swamp and 

 apparently full of Moorhens. News from the Eev. E. Peake, of 

 Oxford, that he saw a Pied Flycatcher at Shotover yesterday. 



29th. — Went to Heyford in the Cherwell valley and walked 

 to Adderbury. Of new migrants noted, there were ten or twelve 

 Sedge-Warblers, Whinchat, Nightingale, Garden-Warbler, two 

 Whitethroats, and two Sandpipers ; also two Redstarts. Migrants 

 are earlier in this valley than with us, although Heyford is 

 within a walk. A thunderstorm raged from about 7 p.m. until 



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