ii4 Wild Birds and their Haunts 



is a chance of adding to our list and that of the county, 

 for there are other species which occasionally visit this 

 country besides the resident rock pipit, which is confined 

 to the coast line. We have not any record of the 

 ' Oriolidce,' the golden oriole, and Mr. Browne has only 

 one satisfactory one for the county. Mr. Browne men- 

 tions two species of the family, { Laniidce' viz., the 

 great grey shrike, which we have not got, and the red 

 backed shrike, or butcher bird, which is rare with us. 

 I have only one or two records, though I remember 

 when I was a youngster two of my brothers taking a nest 

 close to where Mount Road now is — then of course open 

 fields. 



" Of the ' Ampelidce,' represented by the waswing, 

 the only specimen I have seen or heard of in our neigh- 

 bourhood was one exhibited at our Fur and Father 

 Show in 1913, but we are entitled to put this bird in our 

 list, as Mr. Browne gives an account of one killed at 

 Stoney Stanton in 1850, which was in the possession of 

 the late Mr. Henry Townshend, of Stanton House, members 

 of whose family I know well, another at Claybrooke 

 and three near Bagworth. The ' Muscicapidce,' com- 

 prises the two flycatchers, the spotted, known I suppose 

 to everyone, and the pled, which is probably not. Mr. 

 Browne has very few records for the county, and I 

 believe there are none for several years past until 1913, 

 when I had the good fortune to find one in the grove at 

 Burbage Rectory. He was probably a straggler on 

 migration, for he only stayed for one day after that on 

 which I first saw him and then disappeared. Being a black 

 and white bird the male is somewhat conspicuous, and 

 the sparrows regarded him as a stranger and interloper, 

 and persecuted him accordingly. There are three 

 species of the swallow family, the ' Hirundinidce' the 

 chimney swallow, the house martin, and sand martin — 

 all common — though the last is only found where there 

 is a suitable sand bank or side of a sand pit, in which it 

 can bore the holes for its nests. There is a colony at 

 one of Messrs. Hudson's brickyards, and another has 

 during the last three years established itself in the bank 



