INTRODUCTION. 19 
whole of Wirral and other parts of West Cheshire, 
and the section of his work that treats of the avifauna 
is the earliest catalogue of the birds occurring in even 
a portion of the county. Unfortunately, many of the 
rarer species are dismissed with only a few words, and 
in some cases the evidence of identification is deficient. 
Owing to the lack of particulars several of the most 
interesting specimens cannot now be traced, and in the 
absence of confirmatory evidence the claim of certain 
birds to a place in the Cheshire list is very slender. 
In a paper on the ‘ Notabilia of the Archzology and 
Natural History of the Mersey District, published in 
the Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire 
and Cheshire (Session 1865-66), Mr. H. Ecroyd Smith 
gives an account of the local birds, compiled almost 
entirely from notes supplied by other naturalists. 
In 1874, the late J. F. Brockholes contributed to the 
Chester Society of Natural Science and Literature The 
Birds of Wirral. Unlike Byerley, who although a 
specialist in other branches of natural history had 
only a general knowledge of birds, Brockholes was 
an enthusiastic practical ornithologist. His intimate 
acquaintance with the Wirral Peninsula and the Dee 
Marshes in particular, coupled with his zeal, enabled 
him to add several species to those recorded in the 
Fauna of Liverpool. Several of his most interesting 
notes, however, are unfortunately lacking in detail, 
and it is now almost impossible to substantiate his 
records of such rare species as Temminck’s Stint, the 
Garganey, Gadwall, and Great Skua. 
About the same time a series of interesting articles 
on the ‘Birds of Lancashire and Cheshire’ by Mr. 
Francis Nicholson, who wrote under the nom de plume 
of ‘Redshank, appeared in the Manchester City News. 
