ORNITHOLOGY OF OXFORDSHIRE. 327 
having cleared off the holly-berries in gardens, disappeared. Red- 
wings have been very scarce since the December snow. Some 
Blackbirds left. Some Mistle-Thrushes either left or died. 
22nd.—Crows pairing. 
27th.—Chaffinches and Blackbirds opened song; a Brimstone 
Butterfly seen. 
28th.—Nuthatch, with rapid trill, at Wickham; we have 
none here now. 
March 6th.—Yellow Bunting singing. Peewits, with breeding 
notes, on the arable fields. Rooks have some big nests; they 
usually begin cawing about the nests about the middle of 
February, or, as an old man said, ‘‘ about bean-sowing.”’ 
10th.—Thermometer 50° in shade for, I believe, the first time 
since Noy. 29th. 
12th.— Apricot blossom. 
18th.—Seven or eight Golden Plovers in Cherwell valley 
opposite Bodicote. 
20th.—A daffodil in flower under south wall. 
22nd.—Some Fieldfares have returned. 
24th.—Wheatear in ploughed field on Milcomb Hill, and a 
few fresh-looking Meadow-Pipits. 
26th.—Three Turdus nests building. 
27th.—My son Gilbert heard the Chiffchaff at the back of the 
house, where I heard it next day. 
28th.—Hxamined a Crested Grebe in full plumage, shot at 
Tusmore on the 25th. It weighed 23 lb. 
April 4th.—Mistle-Thrush’s nest with three eggs. 
10th.—Some silent Willow- Wrens. 
14th.—The Thrush family and Starlings now feed largely on 
the abundant crop of ivy-berries, and their droppings, full of 
seeds (which turn pink), are very remarkable. The berries are 
so well ripened that they drop off easily, and lie thick under 
some trees—a circumstance I never noticed before. A good and 
well-ripened crop of these berries is a most important thing to 
fruit-eating birds in cold spring weather. 
15th.—A Water-Rail picked up near the railway station here, 
having evidently struck the wires. 
16th.—Two Peewits’ nests, with four eggs each, substantially 
built of old stubble, and one of them forming a conspicuous 
