BIRP-RETKeATISO. 177 



leisure allowed me observations) of the female endeavouring to discharge 

 her maternal duties after the loss. 



For nearly two years I have made occasional notices of the feathered 

 race, in connexion with the town of Birmingham, and I find , my belief 

 confirmed, that active, busy scenes, ^'where men do congregate," are direct 

 means of driving far inland, and to remote habitats, many of our birds. 

 There is scarcely any other than the hardy, happy House-Sparrow in our 

 streets. (A few captive Larks and Thrushes pipe languidly at occasional 

 windows.) I have a note of one Robin singing in the burial-ground of 

 St. Philip's, in the centre of our town, and I think this closes my brief 

 catalogue. But when I travel two or three miles beyond the factory smoke, 

 amid the lanes and fields, even there the chorus of birds is small and 

 weak, when contrasted with what I had been used to hear in an agricultural 

 county. Last year we had in our garden a Robin nesting, and rearing its 

 young. On the previous year the Spotted Flycatcher had built, and speci- 

 mens of its eggs were obtained, yet last year it was absent, nor at present 

 has it visited us.* A stray Chaffinch lingered with us about a fortnight, 

 and then disappeared. What is the cause of this retreat? There is no 

 lack of shrubs and trees; we have fine elms and chesnuts, and a large 

 extent of ground. Why do they quit us? It is to be explained on no 

 other ground than that, as populations and their dwellings increase, so con- 

 sequent noise and activity render a hundred checks to deter the feathered 

 tribes from retaining their old haunts. Too true, in many instances there 

 is no allurement left them, and they must retreat, but this retreat is far 

 away, and illustrates the cause of locality distinguishing more of our song 

 birds than really, I think, it otherwise would. 



I was enquiring of a gentleman early this spring what made our singing 

 visitants so scarce, and his reply was, "We wo'nt let them come near us, 

 we drive them ofi"; we give them chimneys to perch on, instead of trees; 

 and by so doing, you people in town so frighten the little things, that we 

 in the country have but very few of them — they keep far away." 



In my strolls this year I have heard the Robin, Blackbird, Thrush, 

 Lesser Whitethroat, Wryneck, Skylark, and Chaffinch, and during the last 

 week the Cuckoo has raised his bi-note cry. 



I trust my remarks may not be thought quite useless, as I believe there 

 are very many agencies at work beside the one I have advanced to diminish 

 our number of British Birds. I wish not to lower man, for 



"I love not man the less, but Nature more." 



I wish to do no more than direct attention to the fact that there is a 

 great retreat and withdrawal going on of birds, from the immediate vicinity 



* la not this accounted for in the same sentence.'' — F. 0. Mobris. 

 YOL. VI. 2 A 



