but left immediately. The Pied Wagtails are collected in numbers in water-meads by this date. A Wild Duck was floating dead in the river. On the 24th it was clear, with a north wind. A flock of eighty or ninety Gulls passed southwards, flying high. A party of six Brent Geese flying inland (west) passed over water-meads in the morning. The Linnets are numerous and gay. Flights of Gulls, numbering fifty, thirty, forty, eighty, sixty, forty, passed southwards between 2 and 4 o'clock, flying high. A congregation of Fieldfares was disturbed by a Sparrowhawk while feeding in the water-meads by St. Cross. On the 29th one solitary Peewit was flying south over Winchester in the morning.
December.—On the 2nd the first Grey Wagtails have arrived in watermeads, looking very bright with their yellow breasts. There are 100 Gulls feeding in a ploughed field on St. Catherine's Hill, with numerous Starlings. Chaffinches swarm on St. Catherine's Hill and in water-meads. By the 6th the Grey Wagtails are more numerous. On the 8th I saw the Reed Buntings in water-meads for the first time this winter. This bird breeds some way further down the river. The cock-birds are very easily distinguished by their black heads, but the females may often be carelessly mistaken for a Sparrow. By the 17th the Grey and Pied Wagtails are still more numerous. On the 22nd I saw six or seven Bullfinches in watermeads for the first time this winter. The Gulls are as numerous as ever, but have to content themselves, unlike their relations in St. James's Park, with what food they can pick up for themselves.—G.W. Smith (Ivy Bank, Beckenham).
Breeding of Corncrakes in Confinement.—In 1895 I reared a pair of these birds from the nest, and they passed the very mild winter (1895–96) in an indoor aviary. About April 24th I turned them into their summer quarters in an outdoor aviary, and the following day the male started craking vigorously. Towards the middle of May a hole was scratched out in the ground, but it was not until June 12th that the first egg was laid, when the male at once ceased to crake. They would not sit, and on the eggs being removed the craking recommenced, and a fresh hole was hollowed out, and lined with bents, dry grass, &c, and a clutch of eight eggs laid. Incubation, which was carried on by the hen, lasted seventeen days. Both sexes look after and feed the young, which, although they leave the nest on being hatched, do not attempt to feed themselves for about four days. The parents hold the food in their beaks, uttering at the same time a soft and almost inaudible sound, while the young, readily responding to the call, run up and take the food. The young were full grown and able to fly at about seven weeks old, their flight-feathers being the last to grow.—J. Lewis Bonhote (68, Lexham Gardens).
