found it not rare about Chequers Court, and we have observed it regularly every year near Aston Clinton, Halton and Weston Turville. Mr. A. Heneage Cocks found it plentiful in the parish of Hambledon of recent years. He generally noticed it on small trees in hedgerows. It is mostly known as the 'butcher bird.'
44. Waxwing. Ampelis garrulus, Linn.
This irregular winter visitor appears very seldom in the midland counties. Clark Kennedy writes: ' An immense flock appeared along the eastern shores of our island in the winter of 1849-50, which was very severe, and several specimens were at that time procured in different parishes in Buckinghamshire. I am indebted to the Rev. Bryant Burgess for the notice of a Bohemian waxwing which was killed at Ivinghoe Aston in January 1850, and which is now in his collection. An immense number of Bohemian waxwings were shot in the neighbourhood of Buckingham during the spring of 1867, as Mr. J. W. Thorpe told me ' (Birds of Berks and Bucks, 1868, p. 174).
45. Pied Flycatcher. Muscicapa atricapilla, Linn.
We have very few records of this somewhat rare bird, though we have no doubt that it frequently passes through the county on migration, and perhaps even nests more or less regularly. According to Morris it has once been killed within the county, many years ago, and Clark Kennedy, on the authority of Captain Elwes, mentions a nest with eggs being taken near Eton in the summer of 1860 (Birds of Berks and Bucks, 1868, p. 169). Mr. Heatley Noble wrote to us: ' A nest with six eggs was taken on my late father's property, Berry Hill, Taplow, in June 187- (the exact year cannot be given). The female was unfortunately killed on the nest.' Mr. H. Heneage Cocks writes: ' On May 12, 1883, our gardener at Great Marlow saw in our orchard a bird with white on the wings, which, from its movements and other habits, must have been a flycatcher. He said it looked somewhat like a female chaffinch, but the beak was different. Sir J. A. Godley, K.C.B., reported several years before to have seen one specimen there. Two days afterwards the gardener saw evidently the pair, but though I watched for them repeatedly I did not see them, nor were they ever seen again.' On May 10, 1901, E. Hartert heard its unmistakable and to him familiar note and saw the male at Mentmore, and he has no doubt that the bird was breeding there, though he could not find the nest.
46. Spotted Flycatcher. Musicapa grisola. Linn.
A very common bird everywhere. One of the latest arrivals in spring.
47. Swallow. Hirundo rustica, Linn.
Very common everywhere. They generally arrive in the second week of April or even later, but sometimes earlier. Clark Kennedy reported a pair being seen on April I, 1867, near Eton in Bucks. Sometimes they also remain exceptionally late, namely till October 20, and even into November. In Loudon's Magazine of Natural History it is stated that Mr. F. G. Tatem observed two swallows at High Wycombe on November 22. Enormous quantities are sometimes seen on the Thames before their departure. In Novitates Zoologicæ, vols. i. ii., one of us has recorded interesting facts about a pair of swallows in Aylesbury which hatched for several successive years some white young ones among the usual dark ones. In May 1891 four white swallows were hatched and flew away. In 1892 one was hatched in the same nest, the rest were said to have been of the usual colour. In 1893 the nest contained two white and two regularly coloured young. In 1894 two white and two regularly coloured ones. In 1894 another nest containing two white females and two or three dark birds was found in the same town. In 1895 the pair bred twice. The first time it had three white and two black ones, the second time it had four black young and one white. On August 6, 1895, a white swallow was seen a mile from Aylesbury by Arthur Goodson. Colonel Goodall often saw a white swallow in September 1901 in the parish of Dinton. He made inquiries and found that three white swallows were hatched in the same nest in 1899 at Broughton, and that one was hatched in 1900, another in 1901 at Waterstock, Oxon.
48. House-Martin. Chelidon urbica (Linn.).
Though a very common bird it is absent from many villages where one would expect to see it. The Rev. H. Harpur Crewe has reported having seen a martin ' merrily hawking for flies for about half an hour ' at Hartwell near Aylesbury on December 5, 1874. The house-martin does not, as a rule, arrive before the middle of April, but Mr. Clark has seen a pair in the last week of March near Eton in Bucks. The same ornithologist has also noticed the martin as late as October
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