OBSERVED IN HERTFORDSHIRE IN 1903. 
131 
immigration only), swift, wryneck, greater and lesser spotted 
woodpeckers, and partridge. 
Cuckoos’ eggs are reported as having been found in the nest 
of the hedge-sparrow and yellow-hammer. 
Though I cannot place the record in our Hertfordshire list, 
I think it is worthy of note that, as Mr. Gibbs informs me, a pair 
of nutcrackers (Nucifraga caryocatacte) have been secured for the 
Museum at St. Albans. They were killed in Bedfordshire just 
beyond our county border. These birds have never yet been taken 
or seen actually in Hertfordshire. 
From the rough general notes which I have been able to give, 
it will be seen that the cold and wet Summer of 1903 was a most 
unfortunate one for our birds in general and for our summer 
visitors in particular. The comparative geniality of the early 
Spring had induced some of the migrants to come earlier than usual. 
The subsequent cold and wet of April and of the following months 
seem to have affected them in the following ways:—(1) Many 
of the singing-birds were much more silent than usual. (2) In 
one or two cases birds which come practically every year do not 
appear to have come at all, or at all events they were never seen 
or heard during the season. See grasshopper-warbler ( ante ). 
Another correspondent writes: “Swifts did not come to their 
usual nesting places here at all.” (3) Many of the April and May 
visitors were very late in coming, and even when they did arrive 
they had to postpone their nesting operations to an unusually late 
period. (4) Many old birds, especially those dependent on insects 
for food, died from starvation. Many of the young of those that 
did succeed in nesting must also have fared very badly. Thus one 
correspondent reports: “Many young birds perished, e.g., thrushes, 
blackbirds, titmice, partridges.” 
During the Summer the following incident was brought to my 
notice, and in the hope that it may be of interest and possibly of 
assistance to some of our members, I have thought well to give 
it a place in my report. Early in May the Hon. A. Holland- 
Hibbert, a gentleman who takes a considerable interest in birds, 
requested me to visit M unden in order to inspect a nest in his 
garden, as the identification of the bird, nest, and eggs was 
somewhat puzzling. The nest was built about five feet from the 
ground, and was near one side of a thick, evergreen, closely-grown 
tree on the lawn. One had to push the branches aside before 
obtaining a view of the nest, which was, roughly speaking, some¬ 
what more bulky than a blackbird’s. The cup, however, was 
much smaller than is usual in the blackbird’s nest, though the 
foundation was about twice as large, and was put together rather 
loosely and in a somewhat slovenly manner. It was built of dry 
stalks of grass and leaves, with a good deal of moss about the 
cup, the inside of which was entirely formed of this material. 
Mr. Holland-Hibbert informed me that it had contained four eggs, 
all of a pure white colour, and with a smooth, glossy surface. 
Only one of the four had escaped destruction, and this was shown 
