president’s address. 
657 
ornithologist there is no such certainty. The bird list of 
any locality will include rare and occasional visitants, and 
even ordinary migrants, which may be here to-day and gone 
to-morrow. And herein lies one of the special charms of 
such a place as Ruston Common : one never knows what 
casual avian acquaintance may be made thereon. 
My brother and I had been Snipe shooting here on 
December 5th, 1890, and were enjoying a mid-day rest and 
lunch amongst the sheltering furze bushes, when our 
attention was suddenly attracted by an aerial commotion 
above our heads — an immature White-tailed Eagle 
(d. albicilla) was being mobbed by a score or so of Rooks, 
the big bird lazily flapped on, making no apparent attempt 
at retaliation, or, at any rate, until he and his sable satellites 
were lost to our view amidst the stately oaks of Honing, 
about a quarter of a mile away. 
Rooks and Crows are much given to thus making themselves 
obnoxious to birds larger than themselves ; the latter species, 
however, often really mean business; thus, in January 
last, 1 saw two Grey Crows compel a Wild Duck — one out of 
several that I had flushed from Ruston holmes — to return to 
the water for safety. In March, 1888, two attacked a small 
liver and white Spaniel, whilst it was rolling in the snow 
on the common, and sent it back yapping to me with fright. 
The same day. whilst driving. I struck at a Crow with my 
whip, which was chasing a semi-starved Thrush. 
A pair or two of Nightjars breed annually on the drier 
parts of the common. They arrive late in the spring, and 
seldom start their curious and monotonous churr-ing note 
until mid-June, sometimes keeping it up as late as the middle 
of August. The peculiarly liquid “ quelping ” note made by 
the male whilst chasing his mate I have not seen referred 
to in print. The well-known habit of lurching lengthwise 
mav be a protective device, rendering this beautifully 
vermiculated bird less conspicuous than n its long tail were 
