( 339 ) 



THE BIRDS OF SOUTH CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 

 By Albert H. Waters, B.A. 



I will commence my account of the Birds of South Cam- 

 bridgeshire with a list of those I observed in my boyhood days 

 about Downing College Groves and the old Botanic Gardens, close 

 by which we then resided. My notes on these are too voluminous 

 to copy in fall, abounding in observations on the ways of the 

 Rooks and other birds enough to fill a book. 



The Birds of Downing College Groves. — The nests I found in 

 Downing Grounds in the sixties include Greenfinches ; one or two 

 I took for Hawfinches, but remark that I had never been able to 

 get a fair view of the bird. The nests are described in my juve- 

 nile note-book as being made of small twigs interweaved with 

 roots and decorated with lichens off the dead branches. Outside 

 they were guarded by a small cheval defrise of stiff twigs from 

 thorn-bushes. The eggs were of a grey stone colour, with 

 irregular brown markings and a few black dots. 



Chaffinches made their lichen-covered nests in the low trees 

 every season. Linnets and Bullfinches were always to be found. 

 I record that I had seen the Lesser Redpoll about Downing 

 Grounds, but was unable to say with certainty I had ever found 

 the nest. 



Among the other birds I find recorded as nesting in Downing 

 Groves are Pied Wagtails and Tree-Pipits. On the ground among 

 the long grass, or in a tuft of nettles, were sometimes the neatly 

 twisted nests of the Tit-Lark, and I have noted the occurrence 

 of the Wood-Lark in the sixties. 



I find in my juvenile note-book a very interesting account of 

 a Nuthatch's nest, and remarks on the ways of the old birds, but 

 it is too lengthy for quotation. It is illustrated by a drawing I 

 made of the clever way in which the nest was made in a rather 

 unusual position. It is the only Nuthatch's nest I have ever 

 seen in this spot, although I have seen the birds about the trees 

 on several occasions. 



2 d 2 



