FURTHER NOTES ON LONDON BIRDS. 33 
The crows in Kensington Gardens deserted the spot where 
they had nested for several years, between the Serpentine and 
the round pond, but they had a nest on the east side of the 
water, near the avenue. 
A good many summer migrants came to London during 
April. Large numbers of willow-wrens appeared in Kensington 
Gardens on the i6th. My sister heard a cuckoo on the 25th, 
and during the latter half of the month I saw a good many 
swallows. Before breakfast on the morning of the 30th, I went 
out to search for new arrivals, and heard some reed warblers in 
the shrubbery on the south side of the bridge over the Long 
Water, and on the next day I heard a bird of the same species on 
the island in the Serpentine. 
On the afternoon of April 30, I saw a cock bullfinch near 
the flower walk. This bird appeared to be an ordinary bull- 
finch, and not a specimen of the large brightly-coloured race, a 
pair of which took up their abode in the same district a few 
years ago, but which seem to have disappeared. 
May was an uneventful month. I saw a goldfinch in Hyde 
Park on the 2nd ; a sedge warbler was singing on the morning 
of the i6th on the island, and stayed there for several days. 
Spotted fly-catchers arrived on the 5th, and a good many of 
these birds nested as usual in Kensington Gardens ; there were 
certainly four pairs, and I rather think six. 
On July 2, a reed warbler was singing in a lilac bush within 
six feet of the Bayswater Road ; and on the 5th I heard, probably, 
the same bird in some osiers which have been recently planted 
at the north end of the water in Kensington Gardens. Whether 
any of these birds nested I cannot say. 
A tree-creeper was seen on August i in Kensington Gardens, 
and a grey wagtail on October 2, and a greenfinch on the 
nth in Hyde Park, where the former is rare, though it occurs 
not uncommonly in winter in Regent’s Park. 
During the autumn, gulls came to town in considerable num- 
bers whenever the weather was cold or boisterous, and the 
arrival of a number of them on the water of St. James’ Park w’as 
mentioned in a letter to the Times, by Mr. Digby Pigott, on 
November 13. I went to look at these birds shortly afterwards; 
the majority had left, but those I saw all appeared to be of the 
black-headed species. 
A. Holte Macpherson. 
Early Appearance of Pale Tussock Moth.— To-day 1 have had 
shown to me a living specimen, lately emerged, of the pale tussock {Orgyia pudi- 
butida). The caterpillar (known as the hop-dog) was found in the summer, and 
it entered into the chrysalis state about the usual time. I find it has been kept in 
a warm room, but even this seems scarcely sufficient to account for its appearance 
in January, instead of in May or June. Another specimen has emerged from a 
chrysalis belonging to one of my own children, and this was kept in a cooler place 
(although indoors) than the other. Both specimens are females. 
Malvern Link . ' Richard F. Towndrow. 
