NA'f(JKAL HISTORY NOTES 
95 
suitable spots there will, generally speaking, be plenty of nightingales, blackcaps, 
whitethroats, and other warblers, squirrels or no squirrels ; besides which, do 
not the beauty and engaging ways of this little pilferer make some amends for 
his misdemeanours? 
Blojchatl, Suffolk. G. T. Rope. 
Concerning’ Linnets. — F'or several years I have noticed the simultaneous 
occurrence of two things in this parish, about three miles south-east fiom Maid- 
stone. These are the poling of the hops and the appearance of small flocks of 
linnets. This has happened so often that I cannot think it a mere coincidence, 
but I should be glad to hear whether others have observed the same thing in this 
or other parts of Kngland. There is less poling of hops now than formerly, 
permanent poles being used so much, with wire and string. But the hops have 
Ireen cut or “dressed,” and in some gardens there has been poling, and, true to 
time, the linnets are here once more, about the first week in April. 
Mr. Hudson, I observe, writes : “ After the breeding season the linnets unite in 
large flocks, and at this time there is a southward movement, and large numbers 
undoubtedly leave this country to winter elsewhere.” I take it that what I have 
described represents the return of many of these migrants, which Mr. Hudson 
leaves to be inferred, as he does not mention it directly. * 
Otham, Maidstone. F. M. Millard. 
Bird Sanctuary at Hampstead. — In the Fifth Annual Report of the 
Hampstead Heath Protection Society it is announced that the Committee have 
recommended to the County Council the planting and enclosure of two small plots 
as a shelter for birds, and have submitted a plan of the ground thus proposed to 
be dealt with. This shelter is no new idea, for Mr. J. E. Whiling has had it in 
mind and has worked for it some ten years, and than he there is, I expect, no 
greater authority upon the flora and fauna that yet linger upon our Northern 
Heights. The necessity for such a scheme appears to have been first brought 
home to him about ten seasons ago, when pitiless cold prevailed just about the 
time of the arrival of the migrants, of which, from want of nourishment and 
exposure, there perished considerable numbers. During Mr. Whiting’s long 
residence in the district there have been shown to him snipes, wheatears, 
wrynecks, whinchats, and even nightingales and cuckoos, as having perished from 
a similar cause. The shelter, then, it is hoped, is soon to become an accomplished- 
fact. It would be located in a small valley near the Viaduct Pond, through 
which at present a small stream trickles, and near a spot where the marsh 
marigolds grow. The stream is a little object-lesson in geology, since, granting 
the needful time, it here demonstrates the erosive power of water. A mere ditch 
at present, the waterway, if required, can be widened : it can be planted with 
suitable aquatic growths : upon the banks evergreen trees, shrubs, gorse, sloe, 
and thorns of different kinds may be made to grow ; and if these in turn are 
enclosed by a wooden fence, which should be no eyesore among the greenery, 
a sanctuary nearly or quite impregnable to human marauders should be the result. 
Formerly the nightingale could be heard in several places hereabouts, and accord- 
ing to Mr. Whiling, it is not so very long ago that it built its nest and reared its 
young upon the Heath. But unhappily, we have changed all that, and the birds’ 
last refuge in this locality, possibly the point nearest to the Metropolis where it 
yet sings, I mean Bishop’s Wood Avenue, is threatened by aggressive builders. 
Hampstead. A. 
April g, 1902. 
Birds and Berries. — I was much interested in reading in Nature Notes 
for this month the note on “ Birds and Berries,” and this afternoon I have just 
seen five or six wood-pigeons eating, really greedily, the berries of the ivy on the 
trees in my garden ; they were so busy that they let me watch them from my 
bedroom window, quite close to the tree round which the ivy grows, without 
moving, though I usually find them shy birds, at least compared with many that 
come to feed here. I have often seen the wood-pigeons on the lawn, but never 
in the ivy bush until to-day. 
Lamorna, Torquay. Lydia Pengelly. 
April 8, 1902. 
