32 ON THE RARITY OF CERTAIN BIRDS IN DERBYSHIRE. 



abounds in the best cultivated districts. I am, therefore, wholly 

 unable to explain the cause of the non-appearance of the Corn 

 Bunting in these parts ; and amongst the numbers of scientific in- 

 dividuals to whom I have communicated the fact, I never found one 

 who could at all elucidate the problem. Corn Bunting is by no 

 means a faultless designation, as its congener, the Yellow Bunting, 

 and others, are fully as partial to corn as itself ; still, however, it is 

 preferable to Common Bunting, and may, therefore, be allowed to 

 remain for the present. I will now pass on to the next species. 



The Whitethroated Fauvet (Ficedula cinerea, Blyth), is well 

 known, and abounds in almost every part of the British isles, though 

 rather a rare bird in Derbyshire. Here, indeed, it is not met with 

 more commonly than the Garrulous Fauvet ( F. garrula, Blyth). 

 It haunts, for the most part, the thickest and most impenetrable 

 brakes, apart from which it is seldom seen. The Garrulous Fauvet 

 occurs more frequently in thick hedges, and also in osier beds ; and 

 though sometimes found in trees, usually resorts rather close to the 

 ground. The comparative scarcity of the Whitethroated Fauvet 

 may probably be accounted for by the paucity of underwood and 

 braky woods in these parts, and likewise to the unremitting vigi- 

 lance with which the woods are cleansed of what is probably consi- 

 dered as rubbish, though, to the ornithologist, the thick impenetra- 

 ble briers underneath the trees appear in a far different light. 

 About eight years ago, the woods and their denizens enjoyed com- 

 parative repose ; at that period, probably, the Whitethroated Fau- 

 vet was as plentiful as elsewhere ; but of late the woods and groves 

 have been much too thin and open to afford requisite shelter to 

 these pretty birds : and should the rage for wood-cutting continue 

 with the same zeal with which it has hitherto been conducted, we 

 shall, in turn, have to regret the departure of others of our sylvan 

 choristers. 



The next genus which claims our attention on the present occa- 

 sion, is Picus, the Woodpeckers: Of these, the Green Woodpecker, 

 (P. viridisj, and the Pied Woodpecker (P. maculosus, S. D. W.), 

 are equally and abundantly distributed throughout Britain; but 

 here they are rarely observed, although decayed timber is far from 

 scarce in this neighbourhood. Sudbury Park contains an immense 

 number of old and magnificent trees, exactly suited to the bill of 

 the Woodpecker ; and yet, in all my researches in that extensive 

 Park, during eight or ten years, I have only thrice met with the 

 Green Woodpecker, and but once with the Pied species. For this 

 I can adduce no satisfactory reason, especially as many species of 



