24 
NATURE NOTES 
The Meadow Pipit is a common bird, especially to be seen on 
the marshland, and no doubt is better known in the summer 
than in winter, for we get additional numbers in the spring, and 
their sweet song and peculiar action whilst singing would prob- 
ably attract anybody’s attention. 
The Common Bunting is not numerously met with : one or 
two will nest in the fields here, but not often. It is, to my 
mind, a real country bird. The eggs are smeared with signs 
similar to shorthand, a peculiar feature of all Buntings’ eggs. 
Alongside the field, where you may have looked lor the 
Common Bunting, and not far away from the Sedge Warbler, you 
may find the nest of the Black-headed Bunting; but still, this 
species is not often met with, and as for the Cirl Bunting, he 
is a great rarity, though I have come across his nest and eggs 
just outside our limits. The members of the last-mentioned 
species are, like most Buntings, very beautiful birds. 
The familiar Swallow family is well represented around 
London. We have the Swallow and House Martin, and near 
by, where there is a sandbank or cliff, you come across the little 
Sand Martin. All these birds should be severely protected, as 
should also the Swift, of similar habits, but belonging to a 
different family, for they rank amongst the migrants who are 
partial to our city. 
That peculiar wide-mouthed bird, the Night-jar, is often heard 
here in the quiet of a summer’s evening. 1 have found its 
beautiful mottled eggs so near as Bostal Heath. It is a very 
attractive bird, but 1 am afraid not very well known, though the 
peculiar note which it emits may be familiar to many. 
The Red-backed Shrike, that butcher amongst birds, may be 
frequently met with here. Should you see him perched on a 
slender tree singing, look round, and if you come across a haw- 
thorn bush, or any bush having thorns, look out for his larder : 
you will, perhaps, meet with it, and perhaps it is as extensive 
as it is varied. All sorts of flies, beetles, &c., you will see 
impaled on thorns, some dead, some still wriggling and being 
slowly cooked by the heat of the sun : even young hedge- 
sparrows, turned out by the cuckoos, are welcome additions. 
The Butcher-bird is a bold, fearless fellow, but not a great 
songster, and certain seasons find him a common bird in these 
parts. 
The best known, and perhaps the most popular of all our 
birds of passage, is probably the Cuckoo. As a harbinger of 
spring, together with its peculiar habit of placing its eggs in 
other birds’ nests, it is well known to everybody. Just out 
of the smoke of town it is a common bird and not so interest- 
ing as some of its colleagues, though without it spring and 
early summer would not be half so charming. 
As the Fieldfares and Redwings leave our shores on the 
approach of spring, with many other winter visitors, such as 
the Siskin, Black Redstart, Mealy Redpole, Lesser Redpole land 
