INTRODUCTION. 21 
therefore includes the districts treated of by Byerley 
and Brockholes. With the exception of Sainter’s in- 
accurate list, no account has yet appeared of the birds 
occurring east of this line, and it is to be regretted that 
Dr. Dobie’s excellent work did not embrace the whole 
of the county. Had it done so, our present attempt to 
give an account of the Cheshire avifauna would have 
been superfluous. 
In addition to these lists, there are many scattered 
notes relating to Cheshire birds in the pages of the 
Zoologist, Field, Naturalist, Ibis, various standard 
works on British birds, local newspapers, the Pro- 
ceedings of Scientific Societies, and other publications. 
CHESHIRE COMPARED WITH OTHER 
FAUNAL AREAS. 
There is satisfactory evidence of the occurrence, in 
a wild state, of two hundred and twenty-two species 
of birds in Cheshire during the present century. It 
is impossible to dogmatise on the claims of some of 
these to a place in the list, and we have considered 
it advisable to exclude the Canada Goose and the 
Mute Swan, birds originally introduced, although now 
existing in a more or less wild state. On the other 
hand, we have included the Little Owl provisionally, 
although there is presumptive evidence of its intro- 
duction. The records of fourteen species—the Rock 
Thrush, Cirl Bunting, Crested Lark, Alpine Swift, 
Roller, Montagu’s Harrier, Golden Eagle, American 
Swallow-tailed Kite, Ruddy Sheld Duck, White-eyed 
Duck, Harlequin Duck, Temminck’s Stint, Spotted 
Sandpiper, and Noddy Tern—must be considered ‘not 
proven, and we have only referred to them because 
