BUMMER BIRDS ABODT BARNSLEY. 7 



heard a few low strains, ascending to a cheerful buoyant carol, which had in 

 some notes a resemblance to the Blackbird and Thrush; indeed my friend 

 went away with the impression that it was the latter of these fine songsters. 

 Not being satisfied myself, as we stood at some distance, I penetrated deeper 

 into the wood, and soon recognised as the voice of an old friend the rich lilting 

 note, increasing in elevation to the close, of our favourite the Blackcap Warbler, 

 which, with the Garden Warbler, are the only first-class songsters of this 

 family to supply the loss of the imprisoned Nightingale. 



April 24:th. — Heard first the few grating notes of the Whinchat's song in 

 the fields below the town. 



April 25th. — Varied ray walk, and went up Pogmoor fields, and was rewarded 

 by seeing for the first time this season the Wheatear flitting over the fallows, 

 and attracting my attention by the vividness of tint on its upper tail coverts, 

 seeminff at first like a floating white feather. 



April 29th. — Walked on the canal bank this evening, and observed sporting 

 over the Dearne meadows the first Martins that have come under my notice 

 this year. 



April 30th. — ^ Walked down Old Mill Lane and along the canal side; a 

 young relative overtook me at the Aqueduct, and shared in my high privilege 

 of hearing for the first time this year four of our warbling visitants in Cliff 

 Wood. First was heard the 'cha, cha, wheet, wheet, why' of the Whitethroat, 

 followed by its merry interruptedly gurgling song; next the plaintive call, 

 unlike that of any other bird, the 'pheu, pheu' of the long-winged Wood 

 Wren, succeeded by its equally singular song, 'tzit, tzit, tzit, tz-z-z-e,' which, 

 from its hissing character, has gained for it its specific designation of Sihilaii^ix, 

 and one of its local English names of the Wood Shaker; next we beard the 

 'tir-r-r-x-x' of the Gra.sshopper Warbler; and lastly the polyglot strain, half 

 chatter, half warble, of that comedian of birds the Sedge Warbler. These 

 birds were all unknown, previously, to my companion; the latter three interested 

 him greatly on account of the peculiarity of thair notes, particularly the 

 Grasshopper Warbler, which, like most other people, he would never have 

 pronounced to be a bird, but an insect of the grasshopper kind. His curiosity 

 to get a sight of it was at length rewarded, and by the aid of my small Dollond, 

 he proved that the singular sound issued from a veritable bird. To crowa 

 the whole, and mark this day with a white stone, that pleasant wandering 

 voice, the Cuckoo's two-fold note, was heard in our land, probably for the first 

 time this spring."^ 



May Gth. — Tidings of two Nightingales observed this day in Ethersley Wood, 

 two miles north of Barnsley; heard, alas! in the same breath as their capture, 



* Cuckoos are amongst the various large birds that have been more numerous than usual 

 throughout this summer, even visiting the gardens about the town ; in such cases being the 

 mark for every idler's pop-gun, and, like the Thrush, Blackbird, and Nightingale, instead of 

 reaping the reward of gratitude, doomed to death or a prison for their song. I have seen for 

 the first time a Cuckoo's egg, pointed out to me by a boy amongst the blue eggs of the Whinchat : 

 this puzzle to him was soon made out from Morris's plates. 



