'39^4' Natural History in the English Counties, 



Former Habitats of extinct Animati. — Perhaps you may consider notices 

 of the former habitats of extinct animals, or the visitations*of birds, rare or 

 remarkable, not irrelevant to your publication ; and as the naturalist may 

 be pleased with such observations, if preserved before they are lost or for- 

 gotten, I now send you a few, and hereafter may have opportunities of send- 

 ing more. 



The Beavers on the Severn. About a mile to the north of Wor- 

 cester, a little brook enters the Severn, called Barbourne, or Beaver- 

 bourne, to the present day, from the beavers (Castor i^iber) that formerly 

 inhabited the brook j a little island in the Severn, near the spot, is still 

 known as the Beaver island j and, higher up the stream of the Severn, is a 

 flat green island, called Bevereye^ which also gives its name to an adjoin- 

 ing hamlet. How late the beavers remained here is unknown ; but the 

 Severn was not navigable near Worcester in early times, from the weirs and 

 rapids that obstructed its course. Giraldus states that beavers were very 

 scarce in Wales in the twelfth century. 



A Red-legged Crow (Corvus G^raculus) was shot at Lindridge, in this 

 county, in November, 1826, a bird rarely wandering so far from its usual 

 haunts. In your Magazine (p. 83.), a correspondent mentions the little 

 woodpecker (Picus minor), and states his bird to be, perhaps, " the only 

 authentic British specimen ; '' but a friend of mine has a specimen, shot some 

 years ago in Nunnery Wood, near this city. 



The Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) visits the fir trees at Hadley Green and 

 Cotheridge, near Worcester, each spring and autumn, but in small numbers 

 of twenty or thirty. They have a leader or sentinel, who, with the others, 

 makes a continual tutter, tutter, tutter, among the trees. Some years ago, a 

 number of crossbills were caught alive, and offered for sale here ; some were 

 kept in cages, but they all soon died, most probably from improper treat- 

 ment. Old writers on natural history accuse them of visiting Worcester- 

 shire and Herefordshire, in great flocks, in autumn, for the sake of the seeds 

 of the apple, which they pierced with their curved bills. They thus did great 

 mischief in orchards, as they only eat the seeds, and therefore wasted quan- 

 tities of apples. Repeated persecution, on this account, perhaps, lessened 

 their numbers, and their depredations in the present day are unnoticed or 

 unknown. 



Puffins. About six miles to the north of Worcester is Westwood Park, 

 in which is an old mansion of the age of Henry VIII., and a large pool. In 

 a late conversation with an old man in the vicinity, upwards of eighty, he 

 informed me that, formerly, puffins (Alca arctica) annually visited the pool 

 here, but it is now about six years since they have discontinued visiting it, 

 as he has not seen one within that time. He also assured me that, in 1821, 

 he saw the great northern diver (Colymbus glacialis) on the pool, a singularly 

 rare straggler so far to the south. He particularly noticed it from its size, 

 and observed it dive several times, bringing up a fish after each submersion. 

 He says that the other birds on the pool kept at a distance from it, being 

 much alarmed at it. He recollects pointing out the bird to Sir John Pack- 

 ington, proprietor of the park, but he would not allow its being shot. The 

 pool or lake is very retired ; no boat is on it, and scarcely any person is ever 

 suffered to approach it. — Edwin Lees. Worcester, July 20. 1828. 



Tall Bristly Rose. — I have, this summer, found the^osa gracilis in some 

 plenty, in thickets near Cruckbarrow Hill, Worcester, a more southerly 

 station than Is assigned to it in Sir J. E. Smith's English Flora. — Id, 



A Nest of the Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa grisola) was brought me 

 about three weeks ago, which was built upon a wooden rake that was care- 

 lessly lying on the ground, in a cottage garden at Bransford, near this city. 

 In this nest, so placed, the female laid five eggs, and even sat on them, in- 

 different to any one passing in the garden, till the nest was taken by a boy 

 belonging to the cottage. The nest is carelessly put together, yet prettily 



