76 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
"exactly opposite my cottage. It also frequented the ground
"just inside the Park gates."
"Oct. 17th and 18th, 1925. Saw a magpie several times in
"Gilwell Park."
Since 1925 I have not seen this bird in the district.
Hawfinch. I have only known of one pair of these birds
nesting in Gilwell Park. This was in 1923. All went welt
till the five nestlings were fledged, when on five consecutive
days a live nestling was found on the ground beneath the nest.
They all died and a post mortem failed to show the cause of their
eviction from the nest. I occasionally see a hawfinch in the
garden among the peas in June and sometimes in winter I
stalk a few among the hornbeams near the Jubilee Retreat.
Tree-Sparrow. At least one pair breeds most years in
Gilwell Park. This year I watched parents and young on a
tree in Sewardstone village and I have frequently seen the
bird behind the Jubilee Retreat.
Tree Pipit. This delightful songster is rather abundant in
Gilwell Park and Lane and on the West Essex Golf Links—also
on the edge of Hawk and Bury Woods.
Nuthatch. As a Forest bird the Nuthatch is chiefly found
at High Beach. It is also a permanent resident in Gilwell
Park, where it nests. It comes to my food-table and its note
may be heard at all times of year in the lane behind my cottage.
We will now consider a few of the birds I have watched on
Chingford Plain and Yardley Hill.
Wheatear. Almost yearly I see small parties of Wheatears
on Chingford Plain at the end of April or early in May. These
birds are passing through the district on their way to their
nesting places.
Rep-Backed Shrike. This bird nested each year on
Yardley Hill from 1920 till 1929, when I could find no
trace of it. On May 10th of this year we saw a cock Shrike
fly over some bushes, on the occasion of the expedition of the
Essex Field Club to Gilwell. Throughout the season I searched
in vain for the nesting place, but probably the bird moved on
to the fields bordering Bury Wood, as a hen Shrike and a young
one were constantly hawking insects from the palings of Farmer
Bird's field. On July 6th, 1930, I watched a pair in the field
above Sewardstone School. They flew from a thorn hedge at