NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
173 
of bird life in the woods in spring and summer is very small ; but squirrels abound. 
In the wood fifty yards from my house little birds rarely nest. I have heard but 
one nightingale this year in the coverts, and only one chift'chafl’, which soon moved 
on. The only nightingale’s nest I have ever seen in the woods here was at the 
bottom of a bed of nettles. In my garden it is quite different. Goldfinches, 
lesser redpoles and other birds breed in my trees; there are nests in almost every 
bush. The barking of my dogs, and proximity to the house keep the squirrels 
away, at all events until the nuts are ripe. In the reeds and water plants by the 
side of the stream there are many little birds ; but there the squirrels do not go. 
I often see small birds chase and mob a squirrel. Why do they do it ? They do 
not treat their friends thus. They raise objections to cats, rats, squirrels, stoats 
and weasels, but not to hares or rabbits. 
Squirrels, all of whose natural enemies have long ago l>een mummified in our 
museums, have got the upper hand at the expense of our little songsters, and in 
many places are far too numerous. 
Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
146. In reply to a query in Nature Notes, I have seen the bird boxes in a 
park on the edge of the Forest well tenanted, year after year, by various tils and 
wrynecks, and should certainly say there are plenty of birds in summer, both in 
the Forest and also on its confines. I have many notes on corn buntings, red- 
backed shrikes, hawfinches, tree pipits, cirl buntings, &c., in my diary. Wood 
wrens used to swarm in some parts of the Forest : the Darlford and grasshopper 
warblers nest locally, and so does the woodlark. Woodcock and snipe breed 
there in some numbers. The greater spotted and green woodpeckers are to be 
seen, and occasionally the lesser spotted’s note, “ ri, si, si, si, si” is heard in a 
forest ramble all the year round, and the same remark applies to the goldfinch 
and kingfisher. True, one may walk over miles of open forest (heather, dead 
bracken or gorse) in winter and see little but meadow pipits or wrens, but the 
birds have their favoured spots all the same. You come across the family parties 
of tits and huge flocks of woodpigeons here and there ; twenty bullfinches together 
are to be seen, and parties of goldfinches and fieldfares in the heart of the Forest. 
Have an alder beg beaten towards you and you will see the jays stealing off, a few 
teal and snipe, and a woodcock will be flushed, and the reed bunting, red-poles, 
and perhaps a grey wagtail will be noticeable. If not there, the snipe may rise in 
numbers on some w et “ plain,” and the sedgy bogs hold the water rail, jack 
snipe and mallard. In winter one wants to know the likely places, and to 
remember how the birds shift their quarters, e.g., woodcock may be in the open 
or in the alder bogs, or the hollies, or the blackthorn, and the same seems to 
hold good of all the birds of the Forest. They are local, perhaps, but there. Not 
many people have seen the black-game, but they are there none the less. In 
winter and summer alike Mark Ash, and Boldrewood, Burley Old and Stony Cross, 
and the Queen’s Bower stream, would be lovely even with no bird life, but to 
say there are no birds is not true to fact. Birds of prey are not killed down in- 
discriminately in the New Forest. You can see the various hawks ; owls and jays 
are common : the merlin is an occasional winter visitor ; and in the spring and 
autumn of 1892 I saw a buzzard quite close, and one of the best observers of wild 
life in the forest assured me that a pair still nest there. Long may they remain. 
Hazelbeech Rectory, Northampton. \V. A. Shaw. 
147. Large Trout. — Near here there is a lake, the home of otters, gadwall, 
and crested grebe, a home to them in the truest sense, for they live in peace and 
safety. The lake is stocked with trout, which run to a large size. At the head 
of the lake, where the spring that feeds it rises, the water is raised above the 
level of the lake, and is about three feet deep, and very clear, with a gravel 
bottom free from weeds. Here live some tame trout which are a sight to see. 
After looking about for a little time and throwing in pieces of raw beef we 
attracted the attention of a lo-lb. fish, which hunted backwards and forwards 
close to us and greedily devoured all we had to give him. A far larger fish than 
this, estimated to weigh 14 lbs., frequents the waterfall, and is also tame. I have 
been twice to try and see this grand trout without success ; but I did see a beautiful 
3-pounder creating Meg’s diversion among the shoals of dace, off which no 
doubt he and his huge neighbour often made their supper. 
