Nor should one omit to mention the Sieg, which flows into the Rhine on its right side some three miles below Bonn. Its oak woods (English in everything save the absence of bluebells and primroses), its poplar groves, osier-beds, hazel and alder copses, have the characteristic, rare enough abroad, of sheltering as many small birds as one would meet with anywhere under similar conditions in this country.
The woods were lifeless in mid-winter, except for large parties of Tits, in which the Marsh, Great, Blue, and Coal species were generally represented numerically in the order named. The first and last showed the slightly distinctive characters of the continental races. A spirited trill sometimes led to the detection of the Crested Tit in their company, but it was less numerous than any of the others. A small flock of eight or ten Crested Tits, seen on May 24th in a grove of Scotch firs on forest-land near Siegburg, was probably a family party.
At New Year the mountain-ashes which bordered one of the chaussées were thronged with Fieldfares, Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Bramblings, and Bullfinches, all busily engaged upon the berries. A Grey Shrike watched them, ready to pick up a weakling or a straggler. A few Starlings wintered in the suburbs, but this bird never became numerous, and was much less prevalent and obtrusive than in England. I only once noted a fair-sized flock, to wit, near Siegburg on July 5th. The Nuthatch spent the winter upon the Schloss elms, but left to breed elsewhere.
Every slight frost brought Crested Larks into the suburban streets, singly or in pairs. About the beginning of March they began to sing, often from some rubbish-heap, or from the ground amongst turnips and cabbages. On March 1st the first White Wagtail appeared, shortly followed by others. On the 15th I noted Meadow Pipits, no doubt on passage; Song Thrushes sang well, though much less numerous than in England. The 17th, the first warm spring day, brought the Black Redstart. In a couple of days they were everywhere, singing from the housetops, and evidently finding the spires, vanes, and turrets, which form such a marked feature of a German suburban street, much to their liking. The Black Redstart is one of the few continental institutions which the Englishman will regard as comparing
