Green Woodpecker (P. viridis). Permanent. I once found turnip

seed in the stomach.

Spotted Woodpecker (P. major). Permanent.

brought to me as early as the 28th of June.

Fresh eggs were

Creeper (Certhia familiaris). Permanent. In winter the Park at Brussels is a favourite resort.

Wren (Troglodytes europæus). Permanent.

Hoopoe (Upupa epops). Occasional.

Nuthatch (Sitta europæa). Said to breed in the Forest of Soignies, but I did not even see the bird itself in the breeding season, and, indeed, at all times experienced great difficulty in procuring speci

mens.

Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus). Summer.

Kingfisher (Alcedo ispida). Permanent. Breeds annually in the banks of the Senne, within a mile of Brussels.

Swallow (Hirundo rustica). Summer.

Sand Martin (H. riparia). Summer. Very abundant in the immediate neighbourhood of Brussels, particularly among the sand-pits near the Quatres Louise.

Swift (Cypselus apus). Summer.

Nightjar (Caprimulgus europeus). Summer.

Ring Dove (Columba palumbus).

Permanent and abundant, the

numerous beech woods affording it both food and shelter.

Stock Dove (C. anas). Summer.

Turtle Dove (C. turtur). Summer.

Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus). Permanent.

*Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix). Occasionally seen in the markets in

autumn and winter, but only in very small numbers.

Partridge (Perdix cinerea). Permanent.

*Redlegged Partridge (P. rubra). Permanent?

Quail (P. coturnix). Summer.

Bustard (Otis tarda). Occasional.

Golden Plover (Charadrius pluvialis).

Dotterel (C. morinellus). Ocasional.

Winter.

Summer. A male caught

in August lived for some weeks in a large cage, feeding upon earthworms and hard-boiled yolk of egg.

Ringed Plover (C. hiaticula). Permanent.

Little Ringed Plover (C. minor). Permanent. The eggs are much like those of C. hiaticula, but smaller and more finely dotted.

Gray Plover (Vanellus melanogaster). Winter.
Lapwing (V. cristatus). Permanent.

Turnstone (Strepsilas interpres). Winter.

Heron (Ardea cinerea).

Permanent.

Purple Heron (4. purpurea). This handsome bird used formerly to breed regularly in many parts of the country, but it is now comparatively rare, even in winter.

Bittern (A. stellaris). Occasional.

Little Bittern (A. minuta). Occasional. Not unfrequently seen in the Brussels markets.

Redshank (Totanus calidris).

Common in winter.

I have been informed that a few breed regularly every year upon the banks of the Meuse.

Green Sandpiper (T. ochropus). Spring and autumn.
Wood Sandpiper (T. glareola). Spring and autumn.

Common Sandpiper (T. hypoleucos). Summer. I saw two of these birds early in March, while snow was still upon the ground.

*Spotted Sandpiper (T. macularius). Two specimens now in my collection were purchased by me on the 15th of March, 1853. They were lying in a shop window, among a number of dunlins and ringed plovers, where they would probably have escaped my notice, had not my attention been attracted by their pale reddish brown feet and legs. I was unable to ascertain from whence they came in the first instance, they having been obtained in the market a few hours previously, but the absence of any marine odour suggested the probability of their having been shot inland. Upon dissection they both proved to be females. The stomachs contained coarse gravel and a few minute

worms.

Greenshank (Totanus glottis). Occasional.

Blacktailed Godwit (Limosa melanura). Spring and autumn.
Ruff (Machetes pugnax). Summer.

Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola). Winter.

Great Snipe (S. major). Occasional. Winter.

Common Snipe (S. gallinago). Winter. A few remain to breed. Jack Snipe (S. gallinula). Winter.

Curlew Sandpiper (Tringa subarquata). Occasional. Autumn.

Little Stint (T. minuta). Autumn.

Dunlin (T. variabilis). Permanent.

Landrail (Gallinula crex). Summer.

Spotted Crake (G. porzana). Summer. Arrives about the end of March. In its habits it differs very little from the water rail, but is far more restless and shy.

Little Crake (G. pusilla). Occasional.
Moorhen (G. chloropus). Permanent.

Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus). Abundant in winter.
Coot (Fulica atra). Permanent.

Brent Goose (Anser bernicla). Winter. Very seldom seen inland.
Shoveller (Anas clypeata). Winter.

Wild Duck (4. boschas). Permanent.

Garganey (A. querquedula). Spring and autumn.

Teal (A. crecca). Permanent.

Wigeon (A. penelope). Winter.

*Redcrested Whistling Duck (A. rufina). Very rare.

I saw but

one, and that was a female, which was in a shop in Brussels, on the

15th of April, 1853. It was supposed to have been killed somewhere

near the Scheldt, but the precise spot was unknown.

Pochard (A. ferina). Winter. It probably breeds in Belgium, for young birds are frequently seen in the markets in August.

Tufted Duck (4. fuligula). Winter.

Goldeneye (A. clangula). Winter.

Redbreasted Merganser (Mergus serrator). Winter.

Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus).

Permanent. I am

inclined to believe that neither the male nor the female attain their

adult plumage until the spring of the third year.

Little Grebe (P. minor). Permanent.

Cormorant (Carbo cormoranus).

many miles inland.

Occasional.

Sometimes killed

Blackheaded Gull (Larus ridibundus). Permanent.
Common Gull (L. canus). Winter.

Balta Sound, Shetland,

May 26, 1861.

HENRY L. SAXBY.

Notes from the Journal of a Naturalist in Sweden. *

I NEVER recollect a worse season for sporting. The foxes appeared to have killed all our hares in the deep snow. The partridges in our neighbourhood have been swept off to a bird by the long and severe

* Reprinted from the 'Field' Newspaper of June 22. The writer is Mr. Wheelwright, now residing at Gardsjo in Sweden, and well known by a most interesting work on Australian Natural History.

winter of 1859; and I reckon that two out of every three clutches of capercally and black grouse were destroyed by the rainy summer. All the snipe-grounds were deluged; and, except a little duckshooting, our season was a blank, and the high, muddy state of the water spoiled nearly all the fishing.

Luckily, however, let the season be what it may, it can never be an entire blank to the naturalist. If it does not suit one bird it is sure to suit another; and I have noticed one thing in collecting in the North, that every season is richer in some certain birds than another; in some years we never get an egg of many of our rarer birds, whereas in others we find them perhaps as easily as the commoner species.

As soon as the woodcocks and fieldfares leave us we always know that winter is at hand; and the arrival into the midland districts of the first flocks of waxwing chatterers, which migrate in thousands from their northern breeding haunts in autumn, passing over the country like a swarm of locusts, clearing off all the mountain-ash berries on their road, is a certain forerunner of the first snowstorm. Last year was a bad one for rowan berries, and we had but few waxwings. On November 23rd I saw, however, the first flock; and, true to their natural instinct, they heralded the first deep fall of snow, although the heavy fall did not come till the second week in December, and perhaps the deepest fall was about March 22nd, when it snowed for thirty-six hours without intermission. The weather throughout the early winter was clear and cold, and we managed to get about the forests pretty well till the end of January. The river was open till December, up to which time a few ducks (I fancy the young goldeneye) remained with us; and I also saw odd flocks of redwing, and occasionally a sparrowhawk, although all the regular summer migrants had long left us. The sledging was good throughout the winter, but the ice on the lakes was bad, and in many places, except just in the intense frost, dangerous.

The steamers were running to Carlstadt and even to Stockholm till the third week in November, and the communication was again open in the spring by the second week in April.

Although the weather throughout April has been delightful, the spring is backward. At the time I write (April 30th) very little ploughing has been done with us; scarcely a bushel of oats sown, and not a tree is in leaf. We may, however, soon expect a change (and "time enough," I fancy the English reader will exclaim), for our last winter seemed to come on the 25th inst., when we had twelve hours' snow and 5° cold at night. With all due fear of Punch'

before my eyes (who has immortalized your old lady correspondent for prophecying a warm and early summer from seeing a wasp on the 11th of February), I prognosticate a finer summer and autumn in 1861 than we have seen for some years; although even now I fancy we have more snow in our northern sky, and shall yet have a few more severe night-frosts, for our spring migrants are certainly late; nor till I see the first yellow wagtail, or hear the glad note of the ortolan bunting, shall I believe that the winter is over.

The following list will give a pretty correct statement of the time of the arrival of such of our summer migrants as are already here :— Feb. 10. Saw the first jackdaw, and a small flock of crows. Some few stragglers, however, had remained with us throughout the winter. March 18. Saw male goldeneyes on the river. The females did not appear to come till a fortnight after.

About March 22. Saw the first buzzard, and a starling. The lark had been here a fortnight.

On the 25th the golden plover and chaffinches had come.

March 28. Saw the first kite, the first white wagtail, and heard a robin singing in the evening. Saw a large bat (I fancy the Vespertilio discolor) hawking about in the twilight.

About the second week in April the fieldfares, redwings and bramblings came back, many redpoles and siskins, and (except the green sandpiper, the stock dove, the woodcock, the common snipe, and the cranes, all of which have been with us for about a fortnight) these are nearly all the spring migrants that I have as yet seen. I have this evening seen the first troop of wild geese (I fancy Brent) pass over northwards, and this is a good sign that the season in Lapland will soon commence, although probably the steamers will not get up the Bothnia till the middle of May; but another fortnight will bring many additions to our northern fauna.

We have had a great many woodpeckers in our forests this year, and more of the three-toed and gray-headed woodpeckers than I can ever remember. Neither of these, however, breed with us. I observed in the severe weather that the woodpeckers here get much into the holes of trees for shelter, and I also observed that the gray-headed woodpecker much frequents the gable ends of wooden houses and buildings, and is by no means shy. I took the first nest of the great black woodpecker on the 16th of April, with five eggs. All the birds that breed in holes of trees go to nest early. I got two full nests (six eggs) of the Strix Tengmalmi the second week of April, and about the same time a nest of the brown owl and stockdove (very early for us).

I got the