406 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



longer prove attractive to the birds, and this year (1906) I have 

 not been able to find them either in the old haunts or anywhere 

 in the neighbourhood. 



Observations on t the foregoing Eecord. 



1. Time of Arrival. — It seems clear that this is the latest of 

 all our summer migrants to arrive in its breeding quarters — a 

 fact of some importance in estimating the difficulties it meets 

 with in this country. My earliest date is May 30th, and, as I have 

 always looked for it before the end of May, we may confidently 

 conclude that it does not reach Oxfordshire, as a rule, till the 

 beginning of June. In Switzerland it is, of course, somewhat 

 earlier, but in 1895 it was not in its usual breeding places at 

 Stanzstadt at the end of April, where I have several times found 

 its nest with eggs in mid- June. This year (1906) it was pairing 

 in the valley of the Somme, near Abbeville, on June 1st ; in 1898 

 it was there at the end of May. Whether it has arrived in our 

 osier-bed paired or not is a question which I cannot answer with 

 certainty, owing to the nature of the cover ; but on the evidence 

 before me I should guess that the male arrives a few days before 

 the female. If this be so, it is remarkable that a female of the 

 same uncommon species should always find her way to the right 

 spot — unless, indeed, both are members of the same family, born 

 in the same place. As bearing on this question, I may mention 

 here that all my endeavours to find or even to hear of this species 

 anywhere in this neighbourhood have been failures. 



2. Choice of Nesting Place. — When the birds first arrive, if 

 the season is at all late, the plants in which they like best to 

 hang their basket- like nest are not ready for them, and this is 

 perhaps the reason why in this country (and also, I believe, in 

 Northern Germany) they particularly affect neglected withy-beds. 

 Unless the withies have been cut close in winter, they will in 

 June be able to supply the necessary support. But here I may 

 remark that it is not every kind of osier-willow that suits our 

 bird ;' I have never found the nest in any but Salix triandra, 

 which sends up pliant perpendicular shoots quite close to each 

 other. The other osier to be. found in all withy-beds (S. viminalis) 

 is in every way less suitable. If the osiers in the favourite 

 breeding place have been cut, and the season is late, the birds 



