i 62 
NATURE NOTES 
Starlings were strikingly few in number. The chimney- 
swallow was everywhere abundant, the house-martin not so 
common as at home, yet one curious instance may be noted. 
On the fa 9 ade of the Protestant Church at Lillebonne are 
twenty-five ornamental corbels, of slight projection, arranged 
pediment-wise. In the hollow between each pair of corbels was 
a house-martin’s nest ; each recess had its own nest, save that 
in two cases two structures had been jammed into one nook. 
Sand-martins were not so numerous as might have been 
expected. There was a fair-sized colony by the roadside at Le 
Trait, not far from Caudebec. Good exposures of sand occur 
in cuttings or lanes south of Fecamp, at Duclair, at Toulbec, 
near Pont Audemer, in each case not far from water, so that the 
conditions were favourable. The Hirundines were well repre- 
sented near the mouth of the Seine, though the return migration 
had not set in. Swallows suggest swifts, scientific classification 
notwithstanding. These latter birds, so abundant in England 
this year, even in the London suburbs— I believe to a phenomenal 
extent — were not much seen on the tour ; St. Lo and Caen 
seemed the best spots. Nowhere did I see a rookery, nor did 
the rook appear plentiful. There were two large flocks on the 
alluvial flats of the Seine, between Harfleur and Tancarville, 
and another was noted at Jort, near Falaise. This last company 
was busy among the cut, sodden wheat. Useless it is for the 
indiscreet humanitarian to deny such facts, nor would he do so 
had he ever seen the crop of one of these birds opened after 
such occasional depredations. The better argument to adopt 
is the eleven months’ good service as against one or two months’ 
casual thefts, and the cheapness of boy-labour, in holiday times, 
for scaring purposes. Incidentally, I may say that I saw no 
dead birds used as scarecrows, with a possible exception in a 
composite scarecrow near Lillebonne, nor were there any gibbets 
of jays and magpies. Of the magpies there is no need to speak, 
one sees a score in Normandy or Brittany for every single bird 
counted in England. Only one or two jays were seen. Jack- 
daws were multitudinous — on the house-roofs at Goderville and 
Domfront, in the church towers at Caen and Bayeux, on the 
chalk cliff's at Tancarville and Neules. Crows were quite as 
numerous as in England, and not nearly so shy. One saucy 
pair near Cany, feeding in the middle of the road, rose just in 
time to escape my front wheel, skulked behind a tree for a 
moment, as if for the sake of custom, and then rushed back to 
to their dainty morsel. 
The wryneck kept his voice well employed. Once or twice an 
owl was heard. There was a good supply of green woodpeckers; 
1 startled one of these in a shallow ditch— an unusual situation — 
near Bourn ville. He was not more than two yards away, and 
consequently made a tremendous fuss. Very few pipits were 
observed ; not a single lapwing was to be seen, nor one of the 
hawk tribe, except a sparrow-hawk, stuffed, in the hotel at Pont 
