NOTES ON THE ORNITHOLOGY OF OXFORDSHIRE. 405 



walls, near Eollright, I saw a Wheatear ; rare in N. Oxon in the 

 breeding season. Between there and Hook Norton I listened to 

 the song of the Girl-Bunting but could not get a clear view of 

 the bird, the trees being very thick. 



23rd. — A Brimstone butterfly, the first seen this spring. 

 Holly Blue at Wroxton. There were only four occupied Sand- 

 Martins' holes in the sand-pit at Tadmarton, the pit having 

 been heavily worked lately. This bird has little nesting accom- 

 modation about here ; consequently it is not at all common, and 

 is driven to nesting in various unusual situations. 



24th. — Very few Cuckoos noticed so far; but more were 

 heard later on. 



26th. — Young Starlings flocked. A pair of Flycatchers at 

 the Grove, the first I have seen this year. 



27th. — Visited Otmoor and found it in a very wet condition, 

 having been under water as late as the first of the month. The 

 drainage ditches were full, and there was a good deal of water 

 in the "flits," "pills," and "lakes." These are shallow 

 depressions in the moor, with spongy or boggy bottoms. They 

 fill up with the first autumn rains and stay full all the winter, 

 when there is (especially early in the winter) often good 

 " flighting " — the fowl coming from Boarstall Decoy only a short 

 distance away. These depressions in some cases meander like 

 sinuous river-beds about the moor, turning about and ending 

 abruptly or going on for some distance for no apparent reason. 

 I think they may have been partly formed by the extra shrinkage 

 of what were once the wettest parts when the (only partially 

 successful) drainage operations took place. But some of the 

 hollows seem to hold permanent water, if one may judge by the 

 presence therein (in " Fowls' Pill," for instance) of the water 

 violet {Hottonia palustris) and the frog-bit (Hydrocharis morsus- 

 ranee). Snipe frequent the moor in some numbers all the 

 summer, and no doubt a good many breed. I noticed three 

 birds " drumming " to-day, and heard others calling "wit-tuck " 

 in the grass (ankle-deep). Mr. E. Colegrave, who rents land on 

 the moor, told me at the end of June that from the amount of 

 "calling" in the long grass he thought numbers of Snipe had 

 young at the Beckley end of the moor. Three pairs of Bedshanks 

 seemed to have young hatched. I noticed two Meadow Pipits 



