234 
British Birds : 
about its tree as restlessly as a Magpie, I might say it appeared to 
be hopping about. Two or three times the Sparrow Hawk flew 
out and dived at the Rooks as it passed them, and a curious 
crackling noise I had never heard l)efore, and which was quite 
unlike their ordinary call, seemed to be produced by them while 
this was going on. 
Just after five o'clock the plaintive piping of Waders was 
heard, but search the shores and mud flats as I would, I could 
uot see the birds that made it. Shortly after, I actually saw the 
Jay, for the first time to be sure of, but it was against the sunset 
sky, and the colours appeared blurred and the view was uot a 
good one. The grating cry of a Heron greeted my ears and two 
of these fine birds flew up and away, while immediately after, a 
Jay flew right across the creek, away from the declining sun, 
giving me a fair view of its beautiful colours, which with the 
glass, I saw well. Gulls weie seen lower down on the mud but 
they could not be identified, and a Carrion Crow flew over, while 
Swallows hawked for flies high over the creek. Two Missel 
Thrushes pas.sed over churring at half-past five, a Robin was heard 
singing, and a flight of Wagtails pas.sed over going towards the 
sea. Two Pigeons, the beat of whose wings made quite a 
musical note, flew Southwards over the wood, and appeared to be 
Stock Doves, — another species I am not well acquainted with. 
On emerging from the wood on to the open fields around 
Wooton, I saw several more Wagtails, all flying towards the sea, 
and a Gull also, with a brown mark on its nape and the brown 
band on the wings like a Kittiwake, passed me, but not a bird 
could I .see on the mud flats. 
As I retraced my steps two Curlews flew up the creek, these 
being the first to come near me voluntarily. Cries of acute pain, 
as of a bird in the clutches of a hawk, came from the wood as I 
got near it, but no hawk did I see. Three Carrion Crows went 
and settled on the mud by the side of a channel, and a Heron 
flapped up over the creek. Several Robins were singing at once 
just at sunset, and as I came within sight of the head of the 
creek, the Heron rose, but only flapped two or three hundred 
yards and settled in view amongst the coarse herbage. 
Pheasants were clucking, Robins singing, and Doves 
