ii8 
NATURE NOTES. 
tinuecl the same strange behaviour. This window we also opened, and the bird 
left, but only to appear at a third window, also a small one, looking into a linen 
room, and there she began flying and tapping at the panes in the same unaccount- 
•able manner as before. This still goes on, and I am anxious, if possible, to 
have some explanation offered, as several persons to whom I have mentioned it 
speak mysteriously of “warnings,” “ill-omens,” &c., and therefore for their 
edification, as well as my own, I should be glad to hear the opinion of some 
naturalist. The tappings of our hen-sparrow are so loud and frequent as to 
awaken sleepers in a bed-room close by. 
Chipphig Sodbury Vicarage. Sara W. Harvey. 
Bird at Window (p. 96). — This is a tolerably common occurrence. In 
the autumn of 1887, a robin which haunted these premises amused himself for 
three consecutive days by flying against, and fluttering up and down some large 
panes of glass in the window of an outhouse. This he repeated at intervals of a 
few minutes nearly the whole of the day. A hat and coat in the semblance of a 
man was hung up against the window, but this did not seem to deter him in the 
least. At last we put a stop to his amusement by w’hitewashing the insides of the 
panes. It was doubtless the reflection of his own neat little figure in the glass 
which attracted him. He possibly fancied he saw a rival there with whom to do 
battle — robins being very quarrelsome little birds, and always ready for a 
pugilistic encounter. W. II. Warner. 
Fyfield, Abingdon. 
Spring Visitors. — Our little feathered visitors from “ over the sea ” have 
made their appearance somewhat early this year. I noticed the following species 
on the dates named during my rambles about the neighbourhood. Some of them 
may possibly have arrived a few days before. Chiff-chaff, March 25th ; willow 
wren, April ist ; redstart, April 7th ; tree pipit, April 8th ; chimney swallow, 
April 14th; whitethroat, April 15th; nightingale, April 15th; grasshopper- 
warbler, April 15th; blackcap, April 15th; cuckoo, April 15th; turtle dove, 
April 23rd ; swift. May 3rd. Lepidoptera are coming out early this season, and 
vegetation is also very forward. W. II. Warner. 
Fyfield, Abingdon. 
The Orleton Swifts — Four of the Orleton swifts arrived on April 27th, 
five days earlier than I have ever known them, and eight days before their 
usual time. INI ay I ask Selbornians to look out for and note their custom of soar- 
ing out of sight shortly after sunset ? The Cheddar pinks are in beautiful bloom 
now on the top of the brick wall of the garden. The seed was brought here 
from the Cheddar Cliffs years ago, and sown in the mortar between the bricks. 
Aubrey Edwards. 
Nightingale near London.— This charming songster may be enjoyed 
every season at Wanstead, Essex, within six and a quarter miles of Aldgate 
pump. This year nightingales have been in remarkably fine song. Four were 
heard during a walk through that part of Epping I'orest lying between the Eagle 
pond and Haggar Lane waterworks. One fine bird sings in the first clump of 
trees on the left on passing the Eagle pond on towards Whip’s Cross, whose song 
is so persistent that a few evenings ago, when I took a couple of friends with me 
close up to the bush whence the song proceeded, it continued quite unconcerned, 
though one of us made several attempts at imitation, thereby provoking ill-timed 
but irresistible laughter. John W. Love. 
Rooks in London (pp. 79, 95). — Among the places in which rooks build 
in London may be mentioned a garden at the back of the houses in Hyde Park 
Place, east of the old burying ground of St. George’s, Hanover Square. One of 
the houses is partly pulled down, and through the opening I could see three nests 
a few days ago, while standing on the gravel walk in the Park near the railings. 
Between this garden and the graves stands the mysterious hidden house set back 
from the rest. It has only a door to the street leading down a long passage 
between the red brick house and the terra cotta one, and few passers-by know of 
its existence. I am told that rooks began to build in the graveyard itself a very 
few years ago, but were supposed to have been scared by the building of the new 
chapel. E. S. N. 
