I92I. BuRKiTT. — Song and Nesting of Birds. 



123 



The Sedge Warblers have a very marked amount of 

 residual song in the first 12 days of July ; there are very 

 few second broods. There is a considerable amount of 

 Hedge Sparrow song here through June, perhaps more 

 than at any other time, but as far as I know no fresh 

 breeding results. There is a general renewal of Skylark 

 song in June which corresponds with the time parents 

 would be done with first broods, but I never knew 'of 

 any nests at or after this. England seems a month longer 

 and to have another brood. Fresh Grasshopper ^^^arbler 

 song can be heard regularly after rearing the first brood, 

 but the supposed second broods have not yet been found 

 by me, and Mr. How^ard admits the same. I am not much 

 in the way of Starlings, but I heard none sing after 28th 

 March, implying that the song ceased before breeding, 

 but in the last week of May I saw an odd bird sing near 

 a breeding hole, but no notice was taken by a female. 



As to autumn and winter residual song we also do not 

 appear to have anything like as much as in the south of 

 England, yet we have some. I would also draw attention 

 to the evidences of a certain amount of pairing which is 

 maintained right through the winter ; also in non-singing 

 birds, e.g., some of the Dabchick, Mallard, Widgeon, 

 Jackdaws, and doubtless others. The more one looks 

 through any available bird-records the more one sees 

 evidences of a continuity of sexual feeling (to use a loose 

 term) throughout the autumn and winter. Thus — Thrush 

 nesting in November, Blackbird eggs in December and 

 January. 



My few autumn results are as follows : — Chaffinch song 

 was heard three times in September and once in October, 

 along with some of the triple chirps as in early spring. 

 Some of these chirp also in early December. At the end 

 of December I noticed a male and female Chaffinch regularly 

 roosting together. Some call note is heard from the Hedge 

 Sparrow in October, November, December, but it never 

 develops into song as compared with the regular winter 

 song recorded from south-eastern England ; and Howard 

 Saunders says it may be heard in the south of Europe 

 all through the winter. Many Yellowhammer seem paired 

 and taking a sexual interest from November onwards 



