Otterbourne House.
BUTCHER-BIRD (Lanius collurio).-Said to have been seen at Otterbourne. A slug has been found impaled on a thorn, but whether this was the shrike's larder, or as a charm for removing warts, is uncertain.
MISSEL-THRUSH (Merula viscivora).-This handsome bird is frequent, and commonly called House Screech. A story told by Warden Barter may be worth preserving. A pair of Missel Thrush seeing a peacock too near their nest, charged full at him, and actually knocked him down.
SONG-THRUSH (Merula musica).-Happily everywhere warbling on warm days in autumn and winter with a sweet, powerful song, some notes more liquid than even the nightingale's. The shells of the snails he has devoured bestrew the garden-walks.
BLACKBIRD (Merula vulgaris).-Out, with angry scream and chatter at the approach of an enemy, darts the 'ousel cock so black of hue, with orange-tawny bill.' How dull a lawn would be without his pert movements when he comes down alternately with his russet wife. One blackbird with a broad white feather on each side of his tail haunted Elderfield for two years, but, alas! one spring day a spruce sable rival descended and captivated the faithless dame. They united, chased poor Mr. Whitetail over the high garden hedge, and he was seen no more.
REDWING (Merula iliaca).-Not common, but noted by J. B. Y.
RING-OUZEL (Merula torquata).-Rare, but observed by J. B. Yonge in Otterbourne Park, 14th September 1865, and it has been seen several times later.
FIELDFARE (Merula pilaris).-In flocks in winter.
WHEATEAR (Sylvia ænanthe).-Comes to the downs.
STONECHAT (Saxicola rubicola).-Hops about on stones.
WHINCHAT (Saxicola rubetra).-On furze bushes on Otterbourne Hill.
REDBREAST (Sylvia rubecula).-A whole brood, two old and four young, used to disport themselves on the quilt of an old bedridden woman on Otterbourne Hill. It is the popular belief that robins kill their fathers in October, and the widow of a woodman declared that her husband had seen deadly battles, also that he had seen a white robin, but she possibly romanced.
REDSTART (Phænicura ruticilla).-Sometimes seen, but not often.
GRASSHOPPER-WARBLER (Salicaria locustella).-Well named, for it chirps exactly like a grasshopper in the laurels all through a summer evening.
SEDGE-WARBLER (Salicaria fragilis).-Whoever has heard it scolding and chattering in a ridiculous rage at a strange footstep will not wonder at the Scotch name of Blethering Jock. A pair nested in Dell Copse for some years, and the curious nest has been found among the reeds on the banks of the Itchen.
NIGHTINGALE (Sylvia luscinia).-Every year about the 18th of April the notes may be heard by the gate of Cranbury, in a larch wood on Otterbourne Hill, in the copse wood of Otterbourne House, at Oakwood, and elsewhere. For about a week there is constant song, but after nesting begins, it is less frequent. One year there was a nest in the laurels at Otterbourne House (since taken away), and at eight in the morning and seven at night the nightingale came on the lawn to feed, and was every morning chased by a surly John Bull of a robin. When the young are coming out of the nest the parents chide them, or strangers, in a peculiarly harsh chirp.
BLACKCAP (Sylvia atricapilla).-Fair and sweet, but not very frequent; nested in Dell Copse.
WHITETHROAT (Sylvia cinerea).-Darts about gardens, and is locally called Nettle- creeper.
LESSER WHITETHROAT (S. curruca).-Eggs in Dell Copse.
WOOD-WARBLER (Sylvia sylvicola).-Eggs taken at Cranbury.
WILLOW-WARBLER (Sylvia trochilus).-Eggs taken at Baddesley.
CHIEFCHAFF (Sylvia hippolaïs).-Common in spring.
GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN (Sylvia auricapilla).-A happy little inhabitant of the fir- trees, where it nests, and it is often to be seen darting in and out of a quickset hedge.
SKYLARK (Alauda arvensis).-The joy of eyes and ears in every open field. True to the kindred points of heaven and home.
WOODLARK (Alauda arborea).-Otterbourne Park and Cranbury.
YELLOW-BUNTING or YELLOW-HAMMER (Emberiza citrinella).-A great ornament, especially in autumn, when it sits on rails, crying, 'A little bit of bread and no che-e-ese!'
BLACKHEADED or REED BUNTING (Emberiza schænidus).- Brambridge, April 1896.
SPARROW (Passer domesticus).-One curious fact about this despised animal is that the retired farmer, after whom Elderfield is named, made it his business to exterminate the village sparrows. He often brought them down to one, but always by the next morning that sparrow had provided himself with a mate to share his Castle Dangerous. Sparrows' (or sprows') heads make a figure in many church ratebooks.
CHAFFINCH (Fringilla cælebs).-Chink is the Hampshire name. The hens do not here migrate in winter, but a whole flight of them has been seen in the autumn on the Winchester road, evidently on their way; and once, after an early severe frost, about a hundred were found dead in a haystack near Basingstoke. Thomas Chamberlayne, Esq., who had a singular attraction for birds, used to have them coming to eat grain from his pocket. It has the perfection of a nest.
GOLDFINCH (Carduelis elegans).-This exquisite little bird is frequent on the borders of the chalk hills, where there is plenty of thistledown.
HAWFINCH (Coccothraustes vulgaris).-Sometimes seen, but not common.
LINNET (Linota cannabina).-Fairly frequent.
GREEN LINNET (Coccothraustes chloris).-Greenfinch, or Beanbird as they call it in Devonshire, is a pleasant visitor, though it has a great turn for pease.
WREN (Sylvia troglodytes).-This brisk little being Kitty Wren is to be seen everywhere. Whether Kingsley's theory is right that the little birds roll themselves into a ball in a hole in the winter, I know not. Single ones are certainly to be seen on a bank on a frosty, sunshiny day. Have they come out to view the world and report on it? Those very odd, unused nests are often to be found hanging from the thatch within outhouses. May it be recorded here that a wren once came to peck the sprigs on Miss Keble's gown?
GREAT TITMOUSE (Parus major)-or Ox-eye, as he is here called, bold and bright, crying 'Peter' in early spring, and beautiful with his white cheek, and the black bar down his yellow waistcoat.
BLUE TIT (Parus cæruleus).-Bolder and prettier is the little blue-cap, a true sprite and acrobat as Wordsworth calls him.
MARSH-TIT (Parus palustris).-Known by less bright colouring and white breast.
COLE-TIT (Parus ater).-More grey, and very graceful. All these four will gladly come to a window in winter for a little fat hung to a string, and will put themselves into wonderful inverse positions.
LONG-TAILED TIT (Parus caudatus).-Long-tailed Caper, as is his local name, is more shy, and will not come to be fed; but the antics of a family after they have left their domed nest are delightful to watch, as they play in the boughs of a fir-tree.
HEDGE-SPARROW (Accentur modularis).-Quiet, mottled bird, to be seen everywhere.
PIED WAGTAIL (Motacilla lutor).-Most of these stay with us all winter, but one March evening at least forty-three descended on the lawn at Elderfield, doubtless halting in their flight from southern lands. Most winning birds they are, with their lively hop and jerking tails. Dish-washer is their Hampshire name.
GREY WAGTAIL (Motacilla boarula).-This pretty bird is really partly yellow. It is not very frequent here, but is sometimes found on the Itchen bank; likewise the nest in a reedy meadow.
RAY'S WAGTAIL (Motacilla Rayi).-Ray's Wagtail was catching flies on a window at Otterbourne House in 1890.
TREE PITT (Anthus arboreus), MEADOW PIPIT (Anthus pratensis ).-Small brown birds, not easy to distinguish; but the eggs differ, and both have been
