2i8 
NATURE NOTES 
yard were bramble finches,” but as, unfortunately, she did not take an egg from 
the nest, her case falls to the ground. 
2, Blenhei’n Terrace, Cheltenham. Conway Dighton. 
Birds Singing at Night.— I have but little doubt but that the bird 
“ Lucy Rowlatt ” hears singing at night is the wood lark, which your corres- 
pondent, “ J. Hiam,” does not mention on page 197. The wood lark’s song is 
short and very sweet, and during the late hot dry .summer it has sung continuously 
at night. I have heard the skylark singing after 9 p.m., and the wood lark later 
still, and then the nightingale, all within a short distance of my house at Pinner, 
but I have never heard a hedge sparrow do so. .Arthur N. Gili.man. 
5, Fellows Road, N. IV., October 6, 1899. 
Birds’ Beat. — It has often struck me that wild birds have a regular route 
which they follow day by day in search of food. .At the same hour for weeks I 
have often noted the same bird busil)’ engaged hunting in every hole and cranny 
in the usual place. As two examples of this methodical means of seeking a 
living, I will mention that of a kestrel (Falco tinnuncnlus) which for more than 
three years has often been seen by me sailing over the garden from east to west 
at midday. yAnd again this September I have noticed a black redstart {Riiticilla 
titys) sitting on a housetop at .St. Ulrich, Tyrol, always at about the same hour. 
Here he sang scraps of song and then went on his way again. It is of course well 
known how birds adopt a particular spot in which to sing, partly because their nest 
is near, though this need not draw them to the same twig of a certain tree or bush. 
Glenthorne, Eastbourne. E. G. AVOODD. 
Autumn Appearance of Swallows in London.— I have been not a 
little interested to observe the visit of swallows and house martins to St. James’ 
Park. I am the more surprised then, not that the date is late in the year, but 
that throughout the summer I have never seen a single swallow in this particular 
quarter of London. I first noticed them on Septeml)er 24 flying over the piece 
of ornamental water, for the most part keeping to the east side of the bridge. 
Since then I have not failed to .see them daily, their numbers varying from a 
dozen to about a .score or so, and by no means confined to any particular spot. 
In the afternoon of .September 30 I observed three or four hawking round the 
Savoy Hotel ; while high over-head were several sea-gulls, who may be regarded 
as winter visitants, our spring and winter visitors thus, as it were, overlapping 
each other. The gulls, by the way, though they had re-appeared on the Thames 
as far back as September l, have not yet .settled down in the park for their 
winter quarters. .Another day I observed swallows at various points along the 
Embankment, by the National Liberal Club, the Hotel Cecil, and over the river 
opposite the Temple. Once I saw a pair even in so central a spot as Gray’s Inn. 
It would be very interesting to know w'here lhe.se swallows have bred during the 
summer, and what circumstances have induced them to make a temporary sojourn 
in London before their final deparluie for warmer region.s. If the recent gales 
have made them delay their departure, why should they select London ? Possibly 
some of your readers may have made similar observations and offer a .satisfactory 
exjrlanation. 
I can adduce a parallel experience of the year 1896, when I resided in 
Kennington. Then, as now, I had failed to see any swallows during the summer : 
and in that year also, as in this, I was surprised and interested to note their 
appearance late in .September. In the autumn of that year I continued to observe 
them almost daily for about a fortnight or three weeks on into October. For the 
most part they jueferred Kennington Park, where one day I counted from fifteen 
to twenty ; once or twice I saw them in the I’rixton Road, twice nearer the heart 
of Lonrlon in the immediate neighbourhood of “ The Elephant,” once by the 
trees in front of the model dwellings in Iflackfriars Road, and once in so unlikely 
a place as Fetter Lane. ClIAS. ]. COI.I.ISON. 
16, North Street, Westminster, S.W., October 7, 1899. 
The Nut-Cracker. — Living in France I have not the opportunity of 
reading any works of ornithology in English, so will you please tell me the size 
