364 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



keeper Woods, who is an interested observer, assures me that 

 the birds thrust in their mandibles slightly open, a likely 

 probability, seeing that it would require some effort to separate 

 them when in the earth. On the 20th I had a pleasant time 

 watching several birds busily grubbing. They quartered the 

 ground like so many Spaniels, and with all the thoroughness of 

 Knots working a small mudflat. I noticed the Sparrows were 

 at hand ready to steal a grub if they could catch a Starling 

 unawares. 



The washing up of tar and petrol-bedaubed Rock-birds 

 extended a considerable way along the coast. Redbreasts very 

 plentiful in the Park. On the 16th I observed one busy 

 little fellow catching minute insects, leaving this pursuit on one 

 occasion by deftly seizing a worm, which it adroitly pulled out 

 and devoured. 



October 17th. — Gulls in flocks trooping inland from the sea 

 at 3.30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Wind directly from the east. One small 

 lot of Rooks, very high up, came in from sea. 



Starlings to the number of fifty on the park this forenoon. 

 I examined a number of holes bored by them ; they were about 

 the size that might have been produced by thrusting in a 

 short length of pencil. Mr. Woods assured me that "their 

 yellow heads " may be seen occasionally at the surface : he 

 referred to the grubs. A Thrush that had secured a grub was 

 deliberately set upon by a Sparrow, which snatched it out of its 

 mandibles. Some of the holes were but two inches apart, but 

 the majority did not approach each other by a foot. 



October 20£/i. — I took my annual mid-October stroll along the 

 North Denes close to the telegraph wires adjoining the Midland 

 and G.N. Railway. I usually take it on the 17th, a date when 

 I look for the maximum of bird-migration. Unfortunately some 

 recruits were firing at the butts, so that I felt it imperative to 

 give up the greater part of my ramble. I had found so far only 

 a female Blackbird (killed against the wires the previous night) — 

 cut almost in twain ; and a Continental form of the Redbreast, 

 the latter having killed itself without any observable injury. 



Gulls moulting. Miles of primaries and other large feathers 

 of Greater Black-backed and Herring-Gulls spread along the 

 tide-mark, feathers touching each other almost without a break. 



