NOTES FROM ROYSTON. 
15 
hawthorn bordered droves, drift ways, and country lanes, and 
their lively song may be heard in every part of the county 
where ..they can find sufficient shelter, for they are careful birds 
and like to have thorny bushes near at hand to fly to in any 
danger, real or apparent. They build very early in the spring 
and their blue eggs are among the first the boy oologist obtains. 
In the winter they come into my garden and are then tolerably 
familiar, and thankful for scraps of food. 
( To be continued.) 
NOTES FROM ROYSTON. 
Paradoxical as it may appear, the past month, although 
having been uneventful, has been most leventful, for the terrible 
drought has had a most serious effect on both animate and 
inanimate nature. Having been intimately connected with 
agriculture for many years I see this year what I nevei saw 
before, viz., many acres of wheat on full ear and many acres of 
spring corn which has not yet appeared above the ground—I 
should perhaps have said, many acres sown with spring corn. 
Moreover, curious to relate, some of the barley has turned into 
malt in the ground. In our gardens everything is prem turely 
early, and where the waterpot is not freely used the things are 
drying up. At the begining of May our bees looked like 
throwing off early swarms, but alas ! for want of moisture they 
have not increased in numbers, and I believe vast numbers have 
been killed by the birds. Up to nearly the end of May we 
had a great number of butterflies, but from some cause 1 will 
not attempt to explain, they have disappeared. 
May 16th : spotted flycatchers and red-backed shrikes arrived. 
We have a rather unusual number of the former and of the 
latter a fair show. May 22nd : a pair of robins brought off a 
brood of nine young ones ; this surely is beating record. May 
28th: partridges begining to hatch off, this is exceedingly 
early. 
June 6th : a Canada goose was shot near this place, it was 
one of nine ; I have no doubt they had strayed from some 
ornamental water. June 14th : I noticed to-day that the 
starlings are collecting in large flocks, I do not know of a single 
pair having a second brood. I also noticed the sparrows in 
large flocks, as they are seen in the autumn. 
June 20th : I have now before me two cuckoo’s eggs, which, 
I believe, were laid by the same bird, they are exceedingly 
alike in size, weight, and marking, one was taken from the nest 
of the hedge sparrow, the other from the nest of the greenfinch. 
The interesting feature in these eggs is, that the egg from the 
