109 ) 



BIRD-NOTES FOR OXFORD DISTRICT IN 1913 

 AND 1914. 



By H. G. Attlee. 



February 23rd, 1913. — A Ring-Ousel seen on a fallow with 

 some Fieldfares near Eynsham. This seems very early, but 

 there could be no mistake as to the bird ; apart from the white 

 collar, it was both larger and browner-looking than a cock 

 Blackbird, which at one time was close to it. Its movements, 

 too, were different and more like those of a Mistle-Thrush. 



May 8th. — A large wader migration over Oxford from 11.45 

 to 1.15 p.m., the night being very still, damp, and dark. The 

 following recognized : — Dunlin (almost incessantly passing), 

 Knot, Common Sandpiper, and Golden Plover (once) ; also a 

 note which sounded rather like the " ke-wick " of the Brown 

 Owl, but less loud, and, in fact, between that and the Peewit's 

 ordinary note ; it was certainly neither of those birds, and was 

 quite strange to me. [At the end of July I heard the same cry 

 on the shore near Barmouth, and it came, I think, from two 

 birds which looked like largish waders (or possibly Terns), but 

 I was too far off to see them properly.] 



29th. — Flushed a Snipe in boggy ground near Wytham, 

 which looks as if there was a nest near there. 



March 11th, 1914. — At Blenheim. A party of some two 

 dozen Tufted Ducks (equal number of each sex about) seen on a 

 quiet part of the water. They allowed a very near approach, 

 but remained mostly merely swimming to and fro, and dived 

 very little. 



April 13th. — While watching them, a Great Black-backed 

 Gull passed over quite low down to the north. As it came up 

 towards me over the trees it looked so huge that I took it for a 

 Heron. It was so near that there could be no doubt of its 

 species. 



lUh, 22nd, and 29th. — I again saw a single large Gull flying 



