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THE WALL-CREEPER. 



TicH(')DROMA MURARiA (LinnKus). 



This inhabitant of the mountainous regions of Europe and Asia 

 is a very rare straggler to England. Tlie first authenticated instance 

 was furnished by the late Thomas Bell, who published (Zool. s.s. p. 

 4664, and Tr. Norfolk and Norw. Nat. Soc. ii. p. 180) a letter from 

 Robert Marsham of Stratton-Strawless, Norfolk, to Gilbert White of 

 Selborne, dated October 30th 1792, containing an accurate descrip- 

 tion of a Wall-Creeper which had just been shot whilst flying about 

 his house. Eighty years later Mr. F. S. Mitchell stated (Zool. s.s. p. 

 4839) that one, now in his possession, was shot on May 8th 1872, at 

 Sabden, at the foot of Pendle Hill, in Lancashire, when flying around 

 a tall chimney, and attracting the attention of the mill-hands by its 

 crimson-banded win^s. 



