242 SUMMER BIRDS ABOUT BARNSLEY. 



and the chief of slaughterers, Macgillivray, confesses that all zoological collectors 

 destroy ten times more specimens than they require. 



Of the summer Warblers, to which these extracts are mainly confined, we 

 have all the truly British species, except the Dartford Warbler and the Reed 

 Warbler; the latter is stated by Neville Wood to occur in the adjoining 

 county of Derby. 



The times of their arrival in the district specified, as recorded in these 

 notes, may be generally depended upon; except those kinds that are thinly 

 distributed, as the Nightingale, of whose delightful melody the public are 

 defrauded by the bird-catchers, (as bad in their way as the egg and skin 

 collectors;) the Wheatear, the Stonechat, and the Lesser Whitethroat; the 

 two latter species not having been observed this season. 



As observers multiply, more correct results as to arrivals, departures, and 

 relative numbers of species may be obtained. To assist some of the young 

 naturalists rising around us, in overcoming difficulties which I have had to 

 encounter alone, I have intermingled suggestions not always deemed needful 

 to insert in books. My only aids were book-descriptions — an attentive ear, 

 serving as guide to the eye in tracing the whereabouts of some uncommon 

 bird — assisted, where practicable, with a small telescope — a more rational com- 

 panion for a naturalist than the murderous gun; as with the former we can 

 admire and spare for others to do so too, but with the latter we destroy the 

 object of our present pleasure; and in the case of rare birds, we help to cut 

 oflF the hope of future gratification. 



April 4th., 1853. — This morning I walked with a young companion down 

 Moltram Wood to the Dearne Valley — the route I usually take when in expect- 

 ation of hearing the first notes of our spring visitants. We crossed the canal 

 by the locks, and proceeded along its banks over the Aqueduct, which spans 

 with its fine arches the winding Dearne. We followed the path where the 

 canal sweeps in a graceful curve between the upper and lower CliflF Woods, 

 where my friend returned, after listening patiently for a short time to catch 

 a new note as distinguishable from the Tits, Jenny Wrens, and other resident 

 birds — it is a proper winter study for the beginner to master these sounds ere 

 the multiplicity of vernal notes, and the thickness of summer foliage come 

 to confound his ideas of individuals in the general mass. 



A few moments afterwards I was rewarded with the two slightly- varied 

 notes of ^chil, chil,' which distinguishes at once the ChiflF Chaff, not only 

 from the two members of its family, {Sylvia,) from which it scarcely differs 

 in external appearance, except in its shortness of wing, but makes it unmis- 

 takeably known from every other bird. Though scarcely to be dignified with 

 the name of song, its two notes are gratifying at this early season as hopeful 

 harbingers of the melody to come. I have not seen in any work an account 

 of its call-note, but after long watching I have proved, what I had some time 

 suspected, that it nearly resembles the pho-eet or tweet of the Willow Wren; 

 a circumstance which increases the difficulty of distinguishing them where the 



