172 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
Last Thursday, and arrived at the coppice at 7 p.m. I had not been 
there long before I was confronted by the keeper, but I made friends 
with him, and he told me that the birds I was in search of were really 
Nightingales, and that they had frequented the place for years. At 
present there were five of them. I remained in the coppice two hours, 
but I was under supervision, and about 8 o’clock the birds began to 
sing. With the aid of my glass I searched high and low for the birds, 
and after nearly an hour’s search I saw two of them on the young 
saplings that abounded there. It was too dark to identify them, but 
they seemed to me to be about the size of a Yellowhammer. I intend 
going again till I have identified them. On the 17tli instant I noticed 
several Wood Warblers on the Wrekin, and on the 23rd I discovered, 
on one of the beams of a shed on a friend’s farm, a Blackbird’s nest. 
I-was told it had been robbed, but on carelessly taking it down to look 
at it I was surprised to find that a Redstart had built its own nest 
inside and laid seven eggs. Both nests and eggs are now in my pos¬ 
session.—T. Y. Hodgson, Admaston, Wellington, Salop. 
BOTANICAL NOTES FROM SOUTH BEDS, 
WITH VOUCHER SPECIMENS. 
Name. 
Date, 
1884. 
Aspect. 
Situation, &c. 
Potentilla Fragariastrum. 
Jan. 6. 
Coppice. 
Anthriscus sylvestris. 
„ io. 
S. 
Hedge bank, Herts. 
Taraxacum Dens-leonis. 
„ 12- 
Open. 
Meadow. 
Tussilago Earfara . 
„ 12. 
S. 
Railway bank. One flower. 
Corylus Avellana. 
>, 13- 
— s 
Coppice. 
Mercurialis perennis. 
„ 13. 
— 
Coppice. 
Eropliila verna. 
Feb. 17. 
Open. 
Fallow field. 
Cardamine hirsuta. 
Mar. 6. 
W. 
Side of a stream. In fruit. 
Ranunculus Ficaria. 
„ 6. 
W. 
Moist bank. 
Primula veris. 
,, 9. 
W, 
Pasture. 
Prunus spinosa. 
„ 16. 
— 
Hedge. 
Anemone nemorosa. 
„ 16. 
— 
Coppice. 
Stellaria Holostea. 
,, 23. 
— 
Hedge bank. 
Nepeta Glechoma . 
„ 23. 
S. 
Hedge bank, Herts. 
„ 29. 
s. 
Hedge bank, Beds. 
Ranunculus acris. 
„ 29. 
s. 
Riverside. One flower only. 
Caltlia palustris. 
„ 29. 
Open. 
Moist meadow. 
Luzula campestris. 
„ 30. 
? > 
Pasture. 
Cardamine pratensis. 
April 5. 
J > 
Moist meadow. 
Equisetum arvense. 
,, 5. 
n 
Moist meadow. 
Scilla nutans. 
n o. 
— 
Spinney. 
Geranium Robertianum.. 
„ io. 
s. 
Hedge bank. 
Ranunculus auricomus... 
„ 10. 
— 
Spinney. 
Sisymbrium Alliaria. 
„ 19. 
w. 
Hedge bank. 
Orchis mascula. 
May 4. 
—• 
Coppice (plentiful). 
Viburnum Lantana. 
„ io. 
Open. 
Hedge. 
Cratsegus monogyna. 
„ 11. 
Open. 
Hedge. 
Saxifraga granulata. 
„ 11. 
S. 
Pasture. 
Valeriana dioica. 
„ 11. 
Open. 
Meadow. 
The cuckoo was heard April 17tli, and the nightingale April 28tli. 
J. Saunders, Luton. 
