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.