126 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 



numbers had steadily decreased. It was on June 14th that I introduced 

 my friend ^Ir. Earle, of Oxford, an enthusiastic oologist, to the woods of 

 Lowther ; the nest which we had seen so near the castle had been 

 torn out : and it was only on reaching the water side that I could 

 point out a pair of Pied Flycatchers to my comrade-in-arms. Their 

 merry song, which I should consider a melodious development of 

 that of Pariis major ^ no longer resounded on all sides ; in fact, a 

 large number of those seen on ^lay 19th had not stopped to nest 

 at Lowther, but passed on, as is their wont, by this route into Cum- 

 berland. Only three females were visible, the majority probably being 

 sitting. A single male in the feminine garb of the first year chanted 

 snatches overhead ; presently, as we leant against some rails above the 

 ijleasant flood of the Earnont, a fine male took up his position some 

 twenty yards in a straight line from us, on a level with our eyes. 

 There he sang constantly for ten minutes, and though he fidgeted a 

 little and slightly altered his position, he was never obscured from 

 view. Turned three parts towards us, it was delightful to study the 

 vibrations of the silvery white throat, the mandibles wide expanded, 

 the tail swaying with emotion. 



Before leaving Lowther we spent some time in watching some 

 male Flycatchers ' on the feed ' : taking up their position at the 

 extremity of a bough, a dead one by preference, ten or fifteen feet 

 from the ground, they gazed intently into the grass beneath, craning 

 their necks eagerly if they fancied that an insect stirred, and then 

 dropping down to mother earth to secure the victim. They made a 

 number of ineffectual descents in this way, but we repeatedly saw 

 them fly up from the ground with an insect in the bill, and dart away 

 through the trees nearly in a straight line, presumably to their nests. 

 Xot unfrequently they clung to the tree trunk in the manner of 

 a Tree Creeper; indeed the Pied Flycatcher is almost as much 

 at home in this attitude as when perching, like the Spotted Flycatcher, 

 across a bough. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 



Curious Site for a Wren's Nest. — A few days ago the station- 

 master at Rillington station showed me a Wren's nest ensconced in one of three 

 little holes in the ash-pit at the back of his house. The ash-pit was about four 

 feet square, and on one side of it, about half way up the wall, three little holes 

 about three inches square had been made into the bricks for some purpose. The 

 little birds first took up their abode in this place about five years ago, and had now 

 become very familiar and sociable. In 1882 the station-master fed them, and in 

 1883 they brought off no less than three broods of young. In 18^4 only two lots 

 were brought off. He had not noticed the quantity of eggs in each clutch ; he 

 had been principally interested in the old ones, which soon became to be con- 

 sidered family pets, running about the door like two little mice. They live in the 

 old nest all winter, and in the spring build in the adjoining compartment, and so 

 on, changing about from year to year. — S. Chadwick, Norton, jNIalton, Decem- 

 ber 5th, 1884. Naturalist, 



