46 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
469. Notes on London Birds in 1906. — My notes on birds seen in 
London last year do not comprise anything of special interest, though they may 
be of some use for the purpose of comparison with those of previous seasons. 
Of the domesticated species, the Black Swans again used their old nest 
by the Fountains in Kensington Gardens ; three cygnets appeared at the end 
of the third week of February, two eggs being left unhatched. The old bird was 
sitting on another clutch of eggs in the same nest on April 2, from which five 
cygnets were produced in May, and a third brood was hatched in September. 
Nearly all the young birds came to grief. The Egyptian Geese reared seven 
young. 
I first heard the characteristic spring call of the Blue Tit on January 25. 
The assumption of spring plumage by the Blackheaded Gulls took place in 
February, very rapidly, as is usually the case. On the 13th two of the birds 
in Hyde Park had acquired dark heads, and by the l6th many had them. 
The Spring migrants made a very poor show in London, and were not only 
few in number, but were late in appearing. The first I saw was a cock Redstart, 
looking very cold and miserable, in Kensington Gardens at half-past seven in 
the morning of April 20. I had gone out before breakfast for the express purpose 
of looking for migrants, and was glad to be rewarded ; but the temperature was 
very chilly, and the thermometer in Hyde Park had been down to 25° F. during 
the night. Later on the same morning, I saw a Swallow flying over the Serpen- 
tine. Curiously enough, I saw no Wheatears, though for several weeks, twice 
each day, I worked over the ground which they usually frequent. 
No more migrants came my way till May, when a good many Swallows 
appeared. On May 5 a Lesser Whitethroat was singing in Hyde Park, and on 
the following day I came across a Common Whitethroat at almost the same spot. 
On May ll the Spotted Flycatcher arrived. During the Spring I did not notice 
a single Willow Wren, House Martin or Sand Martin in London. 
On May 12, a hot, sultry day, I saw a flock of about twenty Terns, of what 
species I cannot tell, flying high and in an easterly direction over the Serpentine. 
Throughout the summer there was a plague of caterpillars of the Vapourer 
moth ; the leaves of many of the trees, especially those near Hyde Park Corner, 
were riddled by them. Birds seem to leave these caterpillars alone, though 
I have seen Sparrows catch the male moth in flight and pull off his wings. The 
female Vapourer is wingless. The moths made their appearance in fairly large 
numbers on July 24. 
On August 6, early in the morning — one of those absolutely still misty 
mornings which are not uncommon in late summer, a Heron was fishing in 
the Long Water. It rose before I got near to it, and flew off, chased by a 
Carrion Crow. On August 1 1 a Greenfinch was feeding on the ground beneath 
the Macaws which were hanging in the open air in the Zoological Gardens. 
I see a pair of Greenfinches by the bridge over the Serpentine most days in 
winter : they hardly ever seem to fly more than a few feet away from the spot 
at which they are disturbed, and quickly return to it. 
On August 16, in a strong west wind, five or six Swifts and a Sand Martin 
were flying over the Serpentine. The first vigorous autumnal song of a London 
Thrush was heard on November 13. It was refreshing to hear a Woodpigeon 
“cooing” in Kensington Gardens on December 19, a particularly dark and 
gloomy morning. 
On December 20 there was a Dabchick on the water close to the Fountains. 
During the cold weather at the end of this month, large flocks of Skylarks pa.ssed 
over London, mostly flying South. On December 28 a Heron was standing on 
the middle of the frozen .Serpentine. 
January 28, 1907. A. IlOI.TK Macpiierson. 
470. Haunts of the Fairy Martin (Petrochelidon ariel ). — The banks 
of Deep Creek, which flows through the old-world-looking hamlet of Keilor, in 
Victoria, are bordered with fine red gums, affording a shelter for numerous birds ; 
the bank on one side is low and grassy, on the other rising into a perpendicular 
cliff about thirty feet in height, parts of the summit of which are covered with 
clumps of the imported prickly pear. 
