6 
THE NATURALISTS’ JOURNAL. 
hawk pretty frequently, sometimes suspended, as it were, in the 
air, its eyes scanning the ground for its luckless prey. The 
great and lesser spotted woodpeckers are rarely to be found, but 
the green woodpecker is sometimes met with, and directly it 
observes you watching it, off it goes with a heavy dipping flight 
to another part of the Park. It ascends the tree trunks with a 
jerky motion, assisted thy its stiff tail feathers, and once I saw 
a bird of this species busy feeding on the ground in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of an ant-hill. The cuckoo is more frequently heard 
than seen here during the summer months, and large c umtitics 
of wood pigeon inhabit certain parts of the Park. 
The wheatear is about the earliest of the visitors to arrive, 
followed later on by the whinchat. The sprightly little stone- 
chat is here sparingly all the year round. The red-backed 
shrike or, as he is more commonly know, the butcher bird, 
arrives in May departing in August. 
In winter fieldfares and redwings are about in flocks and 
blackbirds and thrushes always abundant. Flocks of cawing 
rooks pass overhead and immense flocks of them and starlings 
repair to roost in the trees at dusk. Small numbers of haw¬ 
finches visit the Park but are not easilv observable being of such 
shy and retiring habits. Chaffinches, greenfinches, and linnets 
are very common here, but the goldfinch rare, as is also the 
bullfinch. 
Only once on the water have I seen that handsome but much 
persecuted bird the kingfisher : it was a beautiful day and the 
bright colours of the bird glittered in the sunshine as it darted 
to and fro, occasionally it hovered over the surface of the water 
and then darted down with astonishing swiftness on some 
unlucky fish and was off. Many other species are met with 
and being as it is so near London, this Park may be said to be 
rich in bird life. 
A. F Gates. 
1 HE PRACTICAL NATURALIST. 
PRACTICAL HINTS ON COLLECTING DIPTERA. 
% By A. Ford. 
No order of insects has been more neglected by British 
Entomologists than the Diptera, although this is, perhaps, the 
most interesting and instructive of all the groups and the student 
of this group will have more opportunities of distinguishing 
himself by adding new species to the British fauna or even to 
