236 



THE NATURALIST. 



OBSERVATION'S OJi BTEDS. 

 By Anthony S. Bradby. 



The season for tlie migration of our birds of passage having now well 

 nigh drawn to a close, I offer a few of my observations to the readers of the 

 Naturalist. These observations it will be seen were all made in Hampshire. 



I observed this antumn that we were not visited by our usual flock of 

 Pied Wagtails, Motacilla Ya^Tellii; we generally have lots of these birds 

 about our buildings and ponds during the month of September, as I suppose 

 just before migrating, they stay about here generally for some few days, or 

 perhaps a fortnight, then disappear altogether : this season however, I have 

 not observed more than half-a-dozen at the most here, but at Cliddesden, a 

 village about four miles distant I saw a great number on October 6th ; they 

 were flying about a sheep-fold, and appeared very busy in picking up insects, 

 &c. On October 13th, I saw a great many flocks of what appeared to me 

 Pied Wagtails (at any rate they were Wagtails of some sort) flying over Pres- 

 ton Oak Hills, they flew in a S.E. direction. 



I observed small flocks pass over at intervals all the afternoon. 



The Whinchat, Sylvia ruhetra, generally gives us a call as he passes, but 

 this year I have not seen a single bird of this species at Moundsmere. 



The Stonechat, Sylvia rubicola, is not by any means so common as it was 

 last year, I have only seen a single pair in Preston Oak Hills, whereas I 

 nsed to see as many as six or eight pairs. 



The Ring Ouzel, Ttirdus torquatus, has not been seen about here this 

 autumn, although we generally see some few pairs about Michaelmas week. 



The Fieldfares, Turdus pilaris, have appeared in unusually large flocks 

 this season, as yet I have only shot one, which was a young bird and in good 

 condition. 



Moundsmere, Micheldever, Hants, November 15th, 1865. 



Richmond and North Riding Naturalists' 

 Field Club — The monthly meeting of this 

 society was held on Tuesday, November 

 14th— the president, Mr. E. Wood, F.G.S., 

 in the chair. The President exhibited 

 a greenstone bowlder, and stated that 



its probable history was one of much 

 interest. Torn from its native rock, pro- 

 bably in Scandinavia, and borne during 

 the glacial period embedded in an iceberg, it 

 had been ground down and altered so that no 

 sharp edge remained, and ultimately dropped 

 on the millstone grit in the forest of Rossen- 

 dale, in Lancashire, where it had laid and 



