hours' drive over the paved roads takes you past numerous little villages and scattered houses, cheerfully adorned with red roofs, white walls, and green shutters. It was not therefore surprising to find that resident birds were scarce. The numerous population of small cultivators may account for the scarcity, as well as for the fact that you may probably see in Mechelen more carts drawn by dogs than in any other town.
Turdus merula.—In the Botanical Garden.
Pratincola rubetra.—Some in the grass marshes.
P. rubicola.—A pair carrying food on the bushed banks of a fortification.
Ruticilla titys.—Several seen in Mechelen (49,000 inhabitants), on the houses; one in the Grande Place.
Daulias luscinia.—Heard in all the small plantations., and about country houses; I saw and heard several in the Botanical Garden.
Sylvia cinerea.—Fairly common.
S. atricapilla.—Plantations and Botanical Garden, where it was in very fine song.
S. hortensis.—Appeared to be common in plantations.
Hypolais icterina.—One heard to the north of the town; another haunted the Botanical Garden. I heard a few rather good notes from this bird, and a regular screech once or twice; but I had no opportunity of listening to it well on account of a brass band and a crowd of people interfering on one occasion, and a cold grey morning on another.
*Acrocephalus palustris?.—A bird singing, but out of sight, in a patch of tall rye bounded by a wet ditch and garden ground, was probably a Marsh Warbler. I heard imitations of the notes of Swallow, Whinchat, and Stonechat, with Nightingale-like notes and low chattering notes.
A. turdoides.—I heard the grating notes from some reeds and willows some way off on the other side of the Dyle. At a fortification to the north of the town there was a moat, of which I could get an occasional glimpse from the road. There I heard two or three of these Warblers, and caught sight of one. I did not think it desirable to poke about the place much with glasses and note-book!
Accentor modularis.—Seen once or twice in the Botanical Garden.
