50 
NATURE NOTES 
I have no record of the occurrence of the wheatear on its pass- 
age through town ; nor did I see a single redstart in Kensington 
Gardens, though this, too, is a most regular Spring visitor. 
What the reason could be is difficult to say. The first migrant 
to come under my notice in London was a willow wren, which 
was singing in Kensington Gardens on April 14. I heard two 
more on May 4. On May 5 a lovely male blackcap was singing 
in a hawthorn in Kensington Gardens, and on May 7 I saw 
three swallows flying over the Serpentine. On May ii I heard 
two reed warblers, one by the Long Water and one by the island, 
in Hyde Park; and on May 18 the spotted flycatcher had 
arrived in Kensington Gardens. I did not, however, observe 
any swifts before May 28, when two were flying over Hyde 
Park. 
Ducks were very late in hatching, and on August 10 I 
noticed a brood of four ducklings on the Serpentine, which could 
not have been alive for more than two or three days. Not only 
were most of the broods late, but they were also small in 
numbers. 
Early on the morning of August 20 I flushed a common sand- 
piper at the usual spot in Hyde Park, just to the east of the 
bridge over the Serpentine. Though seen occasionally in Spring, 
the Autumn visits of this species to London are in my experience 
very rare. The only previous occasion upon which I had come 
across it in autumn was on August 23, three years previously. 
By November 12 the thrushes had begun to sing, and on 
November 21 a wood pigeon was cooing. About this time we 
were visited by a severe frost. On November 24 snow was 
lying, and I observed a linnet feeding on the ground near Hyde 
Park Corner. As I returned home from my walk upon that 
evening, a large number of waders were flying high over the 
Serpentine : they were apparently considering whether to alight. 
It was quite dark, and the birds were of course invisible ; but, 
as far as I could judge, several species were present, redshank 
being the most prominent. 
51, Gloucester Terrace, A. Holte Macpherson. 
Hyde Park, W. 
REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES. 
7 he Country Day by Day. By E. K. Robin,son. Illustrated with Phot(>|>raphs. 
Ileinemann. Price 6.s. 
Large journalistic fortunes have been made by the recognition of the large 
half-educated public, who can only sust.ain their interest through a short paragraph. 
In this volume Mr. Robinson, a sympathetic observer of Nature dwelling in the 
heart of the country, gives us a daily paragraph as to what he has seen during 
1904. Each has its headline, and a table of contents enumerating these for each 
month is all there is by way of index. More, however, is hardly wanted ; for, 
sooth to say, it is somewhat thin gossip with but a very small modicum of 
information : the pages might well be referred to, like the mottoes in a birthday- 
