i54 
NATURE NOTES 
thus showing my objection to being overdone by these feathered parasites of man, 
I will try to bear it. 
June, 1903. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
5. Garden Warbler. — Birds often resort to different devices for decoying 
intruders away from their young, and until the other day I had never experienced 
any of these devices in connection with garden warblers. One of these birds 
evidently thought my presence in a particular spot on my lawn very undesirable, 
for she came almost within arm’s distance uttering plaintive notes of distress, and 
throwing herself at my feet as if wounded, with outspread wings and expanded 
tail. As I slowly followed she repeated the performance until I had gone far 
enough to suit her fancy, when she quietly decamped. 
Market IVeiton, Thetford, Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
/tine, 1903. 
6. Notes on Birds at Thetford. — On May 9 a splendid sparrow-hawk 
was seen hovering over the town ; these birds have become very rare, as the 
keepers on most of the estates near Thetford shoot them whenever they come 
within reach. Owls, jays, and magpies are not so plentiful as they were a few 
years back ; the keepers shoot these birds whenever they come within reach of 
their guns. While going across the park of one of the large estates near 
Thetford I met a keeper who was carrying a jay in his hand ; knowing the man, 
I asked him how he caught the jay : he said in a steel trap by the leg. The poor 
bird had died in the trap before he had visited it. What terrible suffering the 
poor thing must have gone through till death relieved it from all misery ! 
I am pleased to inform readers of Nature Notes that we have two or three 
pairs of barn owls living in Thetford, as I saw a pair go over to the Abbey ruins, 
and also another pair which visited an old barn in another part of the town. 
Kingfishers are very rare ; up to the present I have only come across three or 
four. A few years back I should have seen twenty or thirty by this time. 
While down by the river I had the pleasure of watching a fine heron fishing 
in the shallow water ; they seem to be decreasing in numbers. Wild ducks and 
water hens were busy with their broods of young, which disappeared in among 
the rushes at the least sound. 
Hawfinches : a gardener at one of the large halls near Thetford informed 
me that during the summer they shoot between thirty and forty of these beautiful 
birds because they eat a few peas. What a disgraceful shame that the owners of 
the gardens should allow the birds to be killed for the sake of a few peas ! 
Nightingales are in this district in great numbers ; I should think there are 
quite double the number there were last summer. I counted over thirty in 
a plantation of about 300 yards long, and stood listening and watching them 
for half an hour, as most of them were whistling. Last summer, while going 
through West Ilarling, I saw a keeper shoot one as it sat on a branch of a tree 
whistling. I suppose he had the same idea as a keeper which I heard of at 
Dowmham — he shot nightingales because they kept the young pheasants awake at 
night. What will not some of them do for pheasants ! I hope there are no more 
keepers in any pait of England with that silly idea. 
Swallows, martins, and swifts are not nearly so numerous as they have been 
in past summers ; 1 should think the cold weather we had when they were 
arriving affected their numbers a good bit. In Spain a large number of these 
birds are caught by putting up very large nets when they are passing over to other 
countries. 
Cuckoos, wrynecks, and nightjars seem to keep to the usual standard for 
numbers. Nightjars have been flitting about the streets in the evenings, which is 
rather unusual. Green woodpeckers are plentiful ; they have increased of late 
years. Great and lesser spotted woodpeckers have decreased ; I have walked 
and cycled miles round the district, and have only come across a very few of 
these beautiful birds. 
On May 10, while round by the river, I disturbed a pair of black-headed 
buntings, the first I had seen this year. On May 16 I watched a pair of golden- 
crested wrens on the trees close to Euston Bridge. These birds are becoming 
very rare in this district. Goldfinches are increasing, but I should like to see 
double the quantity of these pretty little birds. 
