660 PRACTICAL ORNITHOLOGY. 



ground, as well as from trees, its monotonous cry, which 

 sounds like the syllable pee, pee, pee, peee, sharply reite- 

 rated. 



91. Common Creeper. Certhia familiaris. Permanently resi- 

 dent. Common. Nestles rather early, in the space between 

 the bark and the wood, where a separation of the former 

 from the trunk has been made. Haunts the same locality 

 from year to year. 



92. Wren. Troglodytes vulgaris. Permanently resident. Abun- 

 dant and generally distributed. Nestles very early, forming 

 a large domed nest of moss, fixed among the ivy attached 

 to the trunk of a tree, on a ditch bank, in a hole in a wall, 

 or beside a hay-rick. In winter, when the weather is 

 very severe, it haunts out-buildings, and will affect disused 

 tunnels or kitchen chimneys, several individuals huddling 

 together for warmth. 



93. Hoopoe. Upupa Epops. A summer straggler. A speci- 

 men was shot by Mr Adams in Bradgate Park, in the 

 summer of 1884, and is now in his possession ; but I have 

 not heard of another individual occurring in this county. 



94. Nuthatch. 8itta Europwa. Permanently resident. Af- 

 fects our woodlands, parks, and pleasure-grounds. Plen- 

 tiful, though rather local ; abundant in Bradgate and 

 Ganendon Parks. Begins to nestle toward the end of 

 April ; lays six or seven eggs on a few dead leaves, or 

 rotten wood, in a hole in an old decayed ash or elm, plaster- 

 ing the mouth of the hole with mud, to secure itself against 

 the attacks of the Green Woodpecker, which haunts the 

 same locality. 



95. Common Cuckoo. Cuculus canorus. A summer visitor. 

 Plentiful, and widely distributed. Visits us about the 

 middle of April, although its note is not usually heard be- 

 fore May, and departs in September. Two white indivi- 

 duals were killed on the estate of Lord Aylmer at Batchacre 

 Hall, Shropshire, in the summers of 1833 and 1834. 



96. Common Kingfisher. Alcedo Ispida. Permanently resi- 

 dent. Common and widely distributed. Nestles in holes 

 in banks of brooks and rivers. Makes no nest, but deposits 



