flitted away only a few minutes before, Miss Eaton said, 
but we found them presently, further up the hillside and 
just outside a boundary wall of the Cametery, the male on 
grass ground in a sunny opening directly beneath a scraggy 
apple tree in which the others were perched. On counting 
the members of the flock repeatedly a,nd carefully, I was 
not a little surprised to find that besides the male there 
were no less than ten birds in female plumage or eleven 
altogether. Miss Eaton's surprise was even greater for no 
one had hitherto made certain of more than eight and she 
felt positive that this number had never once before been 
exceeded except perhaps on the occasion of their first 
appearance.and departure when, she thought, there might 
have been as many as we together saw. The latter remained 
long in the apple tree, sometimes scattered all over and 
throughout its branches, occasionally clustering here and 
there by threes or fours, always perching erect and 
statuesque when inert, ever sluggish and listless of 
movement ?/hen happing or flitting from twig, silent for the 
most part but every now and then uttering staccato calls 
which might easily have been mistaken for those of House 
Sparrows although appreciably shriller or more piping and 
perhaps, as Miss Eaton thought, somewhat suggestive in 
quality of the spring voices of Pickerings Hylas. No other 
vocal notes were heard by us on this occasion. At length 
the birds took wing and witn swift, moderately undulating 
