76 
NATURE NOTES 
little bird returned quite alone, and seemed very hungry. We gave it some 
bread crumbs and it managed, with difficulty, to take a few crumbs, returning 
several times for more, then it flew off to a field opposite where it remained 
till a quarter past six. We feel sorry for it and wonder whether the lower half of 
its bill will ever grow all right again. 
Kesivick, Cumberland. BEATRICE BANKS. 
February 24, 1902. 
Our Earliest and Latest Songster. — Has it ever struck any of your 
readers which of our songsters sings the latest at night, and the first in the 
morning ? The thrush seems to me to sing last at night in this part, but which 
sings first in the morning I cannot really say. Will someone enlighten me ? 
Charley, Lancashire. E. Coxhead. 
Blackcaps Wintering in England. — Records of this delicate warbler 
having spent the winter in England have, I believe, previously been noted, but an 
incident has recently come under my own notice which is worth putting on 
record. It appears that two female birds have been continually seen in a 
garden here during the past winter, and they were seen and identified by capable 
observers in February last. They have visited the garden for the purpose of 
eating the apples left purposely on the trees for the benefit of the birds during 
the winter — a true Selbornian act of kindness — and through a pair of good field 
glasses the brown or chestnut head of the female bird was very distinctly seen. 
Mr. Groves — in whose garden in the Crondon Road, St. Albans, this most 
interesting occurrence has taken place — is himself a very capable observer, and 
has a considerable knowledge of ornithology, besides which, other ornithologists 
have seen and identified the birds. 
St. Albans, Herts. W. Percival Westell, M.B.O.U. 
L Larch, 1902. 
Song Thrush in Winter. — I am much indebted to Mr. Thomas Pole of 
Weston super-Mare for his interesting note in the March number. It seems that 
my original note was not made sufficiently clear, and I unconsciously omitted 
words to qualify my meaning. I should have stated in ,the first instance that I 
did not think the song thrush migrated out of the country in anything like the 
numbers that some writers asserted. I did not mean to refer to any partial 
migration in Britain, but solely as to the birds leaving us during the winter for 
some foreign clime. I trust this explanation will be satisfactory, as otherwise my 
notes may be entirely mi.sjudged, inasmuch as I have proved, I think (though perhaps 
unconsciously), that the great number of song thrushes I have noticed during this 
winter has been due to an immigration of birds from the north, who appear to 
move towards the south on the approach of winter, and I contend that my 
original statement that fewer of these birds leave the country altogether than is 
generally supposed still holds good. On a still March evening towards the 
middle of the present month the chorus of song thrushes in the woods here 
surpassed description. There must have been at least thirty or forty birds singing 
at one lime, the only other bird sound which fell upon the ear being the metallic 
alarm notes of restless blackbirds and a stray vesjrer song from the same species. 
I never remember listening to such a wonderful thrush chorus, and it was all the 
more remarkable because of the variety in each individual song. No two songs 
were exactly alike, and the effect at the rapid approach of the gloaming hour was 
a rich treat such as would please the most indifferent observer. I m.ay add that 
a nest an<l eggs of the song thrush was found here on March 14 last. 
St. Albans, Herts. W. Percival Westell, M.B.O.U. 
March, 1902. 
The Redwing and Fieldfare. — In reply to Mr. Pole’s note, I may say 
that my observations entirely agree with his, namely, that I have not of recent 
years observed these species in anything like the numbers I used to do. I cannot 
go back twenty years as your correspondent does, but ten years or so ago we used 
to be visited by considerable flocks of both species, which are very conspicuous by 
their absence now. I picked up a dead fieldfare on March 9, which had apparently 
