Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)—Otterbourne, 1856.
Short-Eared Owl (Otus brachyotus).—Baddesley Common, 5th March 1861.
White Owl (Strix flammea).—Nested in a barn, another year in a pigeon-loft, and again in an old tub at Otterbourne. To be seen skimming softly along on summer evenings.
Brown Owl (Ulula stridula).—Glides over the fields like a huge moth, and on moonlight nights in August may be heard the curious hunting note. As the eggs are hatched, not all at once, but in succession, a family taken out of a loft and put into a sea-kale pot were of various ages, the eldest nearly fledged, standing up as if to guard the nest, the second hissing and snapping, as if a naughty boy, and two downy infants who died. One brown owl was kept tame, and lived 14 years. The village people call this bird Screech Owl, and after a sudden death always mention having heard it.
Chimney Swallow (Hirundo rustica).—They chase the flies under the bridges on the Itchen, and display their red throats.
House-Martin (Hirundo urbica).—Twittering everywhere ’neath the straw-built shed.
Sand-Martin (Hirundo riparia).—Swarms sit in rows along the electric wires, and bore deeply into every sand-pit.
Swift (Cypselus murarius).—First to come and first to go. Their peculiar screech and floating flight are one of the charms of the summer evenings.
Nightjar (Caprimulgus europæus).—All through the twilight of the long days his purr-purr comes down from the heathery summit of Otterbourne Hill, where he earns his other name of Fern Owl, and may be seen flitting on silent wing in search of moths.
Kingfisher (Alcedo ispida).—This beautiful creature darts out of the reeds bordering the Itchen, and it used to be at Chandler’s Ford before the place was so populated. It seems also to haunt ponds or marshy places in woods, for a young full-fledged one was brought into Otterbourne House by a cat, alive and apparently unhurt. Another took a fancy to the gold-fish in a stone basin at Cranbury, and was shot, as the poor fish could not escape.