INTRODUCTION. aly | 
Birkenhead (pop. 100,000), on the Mersey opposite 
Liverpool, the largest town in Cheshire, is surrounded 
by an extensive residential district; whilst New 
Brighton, Hoylake, and West Kirby are popular seaside 
resorts. A heath-clad ridge of high land runs from 
Caldy Hill by Thurstaston to Heswall Hill (358 feet). 
Here the Stonechat, almost unknown on the Cheshire 
Plain, is a not uncommon resident. Fir-woods top the 
low hills at Storeton and Burton, and an eminence at 
Bidston (230 feet) rises abruptly from the low land 
about Wallasey. The coastline from New Brighton to 
Hoylake is fringed by sand-dunes, once a sanctuary for 
the Stock Dove and Sheld Duck, but now largely con- 
verted into golf-links. The marshes which formerly 
extended behind the sandhills have been drained and 
cultivated, and the encroachments of the sea prevented 
by the construction of the Leasowe Embankment. The 
muddy shores of the estuaries rise in places, as from 
West Kirby to Heswall, in low mudbanks, but there 
are no cliffs where rock-haunting birds such as Gulls, 
Guillemots, or Razorbills can breed. Some species, 
however, that nest on the Carnarvonshire crags frequent 
the coast throughout the year. Above Eastham the 
southern shore of the Mersey has been considerably 
altered by the construction of the Manchester Ship 
Canal, and several interesting woods have been destroyed, 
notably one at Hooton, which contained a heronry. 
About a mile from Hoylake, at the extreme north-west 
of Cheshire, are the rocky islets of Hilbre, whose 
weathered sandstone faces rise about fifty feet above 
the surrounding sandbanks. At low tide it is possible 
to walk dryshod from the Cheshire shore to Hilbre, 
where the Rock Pipit, very rare, if not entirely absent 
from the mainland, nests, and the Sheld Duck and 
