BIRDS OF THU DISTRICT. 283 
collections, and permission to publish notes of their specimens ; 
also to Mr. PADEN (Derby Museum, Liverpool), Mr. MADELEY 
(Municipal Museum, Warrington), and Mr. Linnazus GREENING, 
for their courtesy in facilitating my inspection of those collec- 
tions, and giving me every information in their power. And 
I must make special acknowledgment of the valuable help 
of Mr. T. Ruppy, who, residing for more than twenty years 
at the Gardens, Palé, in the Upper Valley of the Dee, 
and in the centre of an interesting hill district, has given 
almost as much study to birds as to fossils; and has not only 
furnished me with notes of his own, but others of the late 
Mr. BecxwirtH, of Shrewsbury, who extended his observations 
from Shropshire and Montgomeryshire, into the part of 
Denbighshire lying south of the Berwyns. 
With regard to the district immediately surrounding Chester, 
I have received the help of Mr. NewsTEAD, my brothers, and 
of Mr. SypNey CumMINGS, whose accurate ear for the notes 
of birds, both young and old, and knowledge of their nesting 
habits, make him a most valuable observer. 
PHYSIOGRAPHY OF CHESTER DISTRICT WITH 
REFERENCE TO BIRD-LIFE. 
Tue district adopted by the Chester Society of Natural 
Science, consists of so much of Cheshire as lies W. of a 
line drawn S, from Warrington, with the Counties of Flint 
and Denbigh. It will be seen, at once, that this comprises a 
great variety of country, both in regard to altitude, ranging 
from the coast up to 1850 ft. above the sea, and to the 
character of both land and water. It comprises one side of the 
Estuaries of the Mersey and Conway, and both sides of the 
Dee, all of them having large areas of sand and mud laid bare 
at low tide, and eminently adapted for the Wading and 
Swimming Birds. In Cheshire, there are ranges of hills of 
Triassic sandstone, covered on their summits in parts with 
forest and heath, as is especially the case in Delamere Forest. 
The low grounds are for the most part pasture, and few fields 
are without the old marl pits, now ponds full of aquatic plants, 
and the haunts of Moorhens, Dabchicks, and other Waterfowl. 
The two Welsh Counties, though not containing mountains 
equal to those of Carnarvonshire, yet form a land of hill and 
dale with large areas of elevated moorlands. Along the south- 
west side of the Estuary of the Dee, rises the Carboniferous 
range of hills, which forms a continuous outwork to the’ older 
formations extending from the mouth of the Vale of Clwyd to 
Llangollen. Behind these is the loftier Silurian range, forming 
the eastern boundary of the Vale of Clwyd; and on the western 
side of this is a vast area of confused hills and valleys, also 
L 
