subject, and having most carefully re-read the whole of the articles in question, I still fail to see that I misrepresented him. I cannot understand how Mr. Aplin distinguishes the Robin and Starling from the other autumn singers (Zool. 1894, p. 410); nor do I know how these two species can "strike up in October or November" unless they have previously been silent. What I contend for is that they begin to sing in July and early August, and never cease till stopped by cold in winter. I am still firmly of that opinion. Like Mr. Aplin, I have found the Willow Wren silent in the last two weeks of June (Zool. 1894, p. 411, and August last); but I emphatically aver that the bird sings in numbers early in July (not in the hottest midday hours), and ends rather than commences in mid-August. I live opposite a thicket where Willow Wrens swarm. Early in July I could hear a dozen or more in full song at the same time, making a sweet chime with their repeated cadences. Will some other correspondents say which of us is the more correct? Let me state in conclusion that I fully appreciate the conspicuous excellence of Mr. Aplin's notes on birds generally, but I thought him wrong for once; hence this correspondence.—Charles A. Witchell (Eltham, Kent).
Hours at which some Birds commence to Sing.—Last April, while staying in Gloucestershire, my cousin and I arose early one morning to hear the birds begin to sing, and to see which bird began singing first. We got up at about a quarter past one a.m., went out at 1.45 a.m., and posted ourselves in a small field between the garden and a little wood, so as to hear as many birds as possible. The following are my rough notes taken down at the time, which I thought might interest readers of 'The Zoologist':—1.45 a.m. Went out. Very cold. Not a sound. Pitch dark.2 a.m. One Nightingale singing.2.25 a.m. Cocks crowing all round (the cocks crowed spasmodically about every quarter of an hour).2.30 a.m. Dawn just beginning to break. A Sparrow chirped once in the ivy against an outhouse.2.40 a.m. Nightingales singing beautifully. Not light enough to read by.3 a.m. No sound but Nightingales.3.20 a.m. Robin calling and Cuckoo crying.3.25 a.m. Redstarts singing and calling in garden.3.27 a.m. Larks began to soar and sing all round. Scarcely light enough to read by.3.30 a.m. Dead silence for about five minutes. One Nightingale singing far away in a larch wood.3.35 a.m. Blackbirds began to sing in the garden. Sky Larks still singing and Cuckoo crying.3.40 a.m. Thrushes singing.3.47 a.m. Robin singing.3.55 a.m. Quite light. No stars. Thrushes singing on all sides, making quite a deafening noise.4 a.m. Great Tit singing up and down note. Wren singing. 4.10 a.m. Chiffchaff singing.4.20 a.m. Starlings whistling. We did not hear a Willow Wren at all, although they abound in the wood; but their song was probably drowned by the Thrushes.—Bernard B. Riviere (82, Finchley Road, N.W.).
