328 THE ZO0O0LOGIST. 
patch at a distance. They were in fields of young barley, and 
would probably be destroyed by the roll. Redstart. 
21st.—A Swallow about my buildings. 
22nd.—Common Sandpiper near Adderbury. 
23rd.—Whitethroat and Tree-Pipit. Song-Thrush’s nest 
with siz eggs in shrubbery. 
25th.—Chiffchaffs unusually abundant. 
26th.—Cuckoo. 
29th.—Ray’s Wagtail. 
May 2nd.—Have only heard the Cuckoo on two days. 
5th.—Two pairs of Swallows arrived about their nesting- 
places. Up till to-day I had only seen four birds this spring. 
The next day they were in numbers all about. 
6th.—Sedge-Warbler. 
(Left England until 24th. I have had news of a Snipe’s 
nest found in South Oxon in April, and several other birds 
seen in April and May. Also of a pair of Bitterns seen and 
heard, and anotker seen a few miles away in the same district 
in May.] ; 
27th.—A Water-Rail reported as seen at Wickham Mill 
yesterday. 
29th.—Quail calling on east side of the village. 
Rain in May nearly 33 in. 
June 1st.—A deluge of rain. At Oxford it is said that ‘95 in. 
fell in twenty-five minutes. 
3rd.—Ray’s Wagtail is rather more numerous than it has 
been for some years. Floods. 
5th.—Two (? pairs of) Nightingales in the parish this year. 
7th.—A second Quail near the village. 
8th.—Nightingale’s nest in the oak spinney on the Grove 
estate. Placed under a thorn-bush, on a very bare bank covered 
with dead oak-leaves; fixed in the forking shoots of a briar. 
Quite exposed, and yet very difficult to see, as it was made exter- 
nally of the same oak-leaves. The bird flitted off close to me, 
but it was a quarter of an hour before I found the nest! Inter- 
nally the nest was formed of felted decayed leaves, and lined 
with a little grass and hair. It contained one newly hatched 
young one, one damaged hard-sat egg, and one addled egg down 
in the bottom of the lining. This cold wet season will cause 
