406 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



singing. One was perched on a bushy thorn stick stuck in the 

 ground among the long grass, and, from the marks, had 

 frequented it a long time. The other male perched for a minute 

 on the top twig of a hedge. Both these birds had probably got 

 mates sitting near at hand. This is the only place in Oxford- 

 shire, where, so far as I know, this bird is found now as a 

 breeding species. Other birds noticed included a good many 

 pairs of Peewits scattered about, three Redstarts about the 

 pollard willows by the Eoman Way, Little Grebes and Moorhens 

 in the New River, and a few Herons. Mr. Colegrave tells me 

 that in 1912 a pair of Herons nested in a tree surrounded by 

 water, but some boys waded over and took the eggs. He also 

 told me later on tbat early in June this year he saw three Black 

 Terns over the moor, and that in the previous winter seventy 

 Wild Geese frequented it for some time ; they made, he said, as 

 much noise as a pack of hounds— to which the noise made by 

 Wild Geese has often been compared. None were killed. They 

 could have been reached by a rifle. But Otmoor has always 

 been haunted by a few keen gunners from Charlton, or one of 

 the other " Seven Towns " which lie round it on the slightly 

 rising ground ; and a rifle-bullet was not unlikely to find out one 

 of these worthies laid up for a shot and hidden in some place. 

 It was a Charlton gunner who shot the Oxfordshire Black Stork 

 many years ago. Curiously enough, he died on the moor, quite 

 suddenly it is supposed, one night when out with his gun ; I 

 think about ten years ago. 



An adult Greenshank (which I examined later on), in nearly 

 full summer plumage, was shot in the parish of Mixbury on the 

 16th of this month. It had been seen in the neighbourhood 

 several times, and was finally shot at an old pond. The last 

 Oxfordshire Greenshank 1 had seen was shot in 1890 ; in 

 immature plumage. 



June. — Starlings are very abundant here this spring. I 

 hoped that they were permanently decreasing. There are quite 

 six times as many breeding pairs about the village as there were 

 last year. There is a nest in a small dead apple tree I had left 

 for the benefit of Blue Tits. The entrance is some five feet up, 

 but the hole goes a long way down. The young come up if you 

 tap the tree. Every possible hole in fact is occupied, many 



