winter, keeping to their familiar haunts and being comparatively tame where they are not persecuted. In autumn and spring however great numbers pass through on migration. As a rule it is easy to distinguish them from our own home-birds, as they keep in flocks and are very shy, though in severe weather they are bolder. In the Thames valley the song-thrush is often called ' thrasher ' and ' throstle.'
3. Redwing. Turdus iliacus, Linn.
A fairly common, sometimes very numerous winter visitor, generally arriving about the middle of October. Mr. H. Cocks reports a specimen shot at Harleyford on July 28, 1871.
4. Fieldfare. Turdus pilaris, Linn.
A common winter visitor, but like most migrants much more numerous in some years than in others. We have not as a rule seen them before the end of October, but much earlier dates have been recorded. In the Thames valley, along the borders of Bucking- hamshire and Berkshire, it is called ' pigeon felt 'or 'blue felt.'
5. Blackbird. Turdus merula, Linn.
One of the most numerous birds in the county. Pied varieties are not rare. We are sceptical with regard to supposed hybrids of blackbird and thrush. Such birds were offered to the Tring Museum which had been exhibited at one of the Crystal Palace shows and there pronounced to be hybrids, but when we examined them, we found them merely to be freshly moulted, well coloured female blackbirds.
7. Ring-Ouzel. Turdus torquatus, Linn.
This species passes through on the autumnal migration as early as the middle of Septem- ber. We have several times seen it near Tring close to the border of Buckingham- shire, and several specimens have been ob- tained near Tring, therefore we believe it to be less rare than it is supposed. Our actual records for Buckinghamshire are, however, very few. One male, shot at Wingrave November 4, 1896, is in the Tring Museum, and Mr. H. Cocks informs us that one was ' shot near Chequers about ten years ago,' and another ' killed at Stoke Mandeville at least as long ago as 1887.' The Rev. Hubert Astley has sometimes observed it amongst juniper bushes near Chequers Court and Wendover during the autumnal migration. Clark Kennedy mentions a specimen shot at Risborough in 1840, and says that the Rev. B. Burgess saw one near Chesham on Septem- ber 9, 1862. A pair was observed during the same autumn near Wendover. In 1865 a male was killed near Burnham, and accord- ing to the Rev. H. H. Crewe a few can be observed during the migration periods near Drayton Beauchamp.
7. Wheatear. Saxicola aenanthe (Linn.).
In the cultivated fields and parks this bird is not met with, except occasionally when passing through on migration, but on com- mons, stony hillsides and such like places it breeds not uncommonly. The Rev. Hubert D. Astley informs us that on the sides of Coombe Hill (Chiltern Range), near Wend- over, a few pairs rear their broods every year, also on chalk hills above Princes Risborough, in the vicinity of Whiteleaf Cross. Mr. Arthur Goodson has seen it on a high railway bank near Buckingham in the breeding season, E. Hartert not far from Halton, where it also breeds on the chalky hills, and where eggs have been taken by boys and seen by us.
8. Whinchat. Pratincola rubetra (Linn.).
Somewhat locally distributed, as it is a bird of the pasture land and fond of the neighbour- hood of rivers and streams, and does not breed, as a rule, on dry hills away from pastures. It occurs sparingly along the Thames ; a few nest in the Vale of Chesham, near Aylesbury, Burnham Beeches, Buckingham and Halton reservoirs. Hartert found it less rare along the river Ouse, especially near Castlethorpe. The Rev. H. D. Astley reports it as 'sometimes seen on the hedges near Chequers Court.' It breeds not rarely on suitable railway embank- ments, if they are well covered with grass. A real summer bird, not arriving before the end of April or first days of May.
9. Stonechat. Pratincola rubicola (Linn.).
The stonechat is if anything more numer- ous than the whinchat, though both can at certain places be found nesting close to- gether. The stonechat is more partial to open commons covered with furze, on dry hills and among the gorse by the roadside. It therefore nests not uncommonly in most places along the Chiltern Hills, where we have frequently observed them. The Rev. H. D. Astley found it nesting near Wendover, where gorse abounds. Mr. Grossman ' found it not uncommon on Farnham Common and on a common between Chesham and Amer- sham,' and met it in some numbers on the road between Amersham and Wycombe, and we have at various times seen it on the road from Aylesbury to Buckingham and near
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