1891.
June 30
(No 3)
England.
Tintern Abbey. - an apple orchard across the road I
found more Spotted Flycatchers, one pair feeding young
in a hole in an apple tree. Also several Warblers
representing at least two species new to me. One I
took to be the Garden Warbler. The other does not
agree with anything described by Col. Irby. I noted this
description on the spot: "Sylvia            ? [male] (?) Above
ashy brown nearly uniform; sides of head below eye with
underparts ashy white; chin (but not throat) dark slaty.
No wing bars and no white in tail. Note chet. [female] (?)
Above greenish-olive; beneath ashy-white tinged strongly
with yellowish-green on breast, throat, and sides of 
neck; chin (but not throat) ashy brown. Note pees.
These birds kept near together and from the
similarity in shape and position of the chin marking
I judged them to be a pair although their notes
were very different. Both chirped at me incessantly
and showed much anxiety as if for a nest or young.
[margin]Two Warblers new to me[/margin]
  Starlings, Swifts, and Jackdaws were continually
flying about the old Abbey. At 7 P.M. at least 200 of
the last-named arrived over it at a great height
and came pitching down like parachutes. A gun
fired on the top of the ridge behind the house
about two hours later started an even larger number
from a larch plantation where they had evidently 
gone to roost. They rose high into the air whirling
about like a swam of bees and finally
disappearing over the ridge. At sunset II
heard what I took to be a Kestrel screaming and
a Sandpiper whistling, both near the river below
but I did not see either.