On Heaths and Marshes. 117 



Yorkshire, although we have taken his nest in a 

 gorse covert within a few miles of Sheffield. But 

 that was long ago, and, truth to tell, we failed to 

 recognize the importance of our discovery for years 

 afterwards, and when nest and eggs had been lost. 

 This Warbler is said to breed in Derbyshire, but 

 we have had no experience of it in that county. It 

 is interesting to remark that the species appears 

 first to have been made known to science from a 

 pair that were shot on a Kentish heath near Dart- 

 ford, a century and a quarter ago. Few other British 

 birds have, therefore, a more unassailable right to 

 their trivial name. 



That curious bird the Stone Curlew, perhaps 

 equally as well known as the "Thick-knee", is to 

 be found on certain heaths as far northwards as 

 Yorkshire. It becomes more numerous possibly in 

 Lincolnshire, and thence it is generally dispersed over 

 Norfolk and Suffolk and most of the "home counties ". 

 Owing to drainage, the haunts of this bird have 

 become much more restricted than formerly, and in 

 not a few localities it has been exterminated com- 

 pletely. It loves the more open and bare heath- 

 lands, especially such as are interspersed with 

 stony and chalky ground and free from trees and 

 brushwood, for cover is in no way essential to its 

 requirements. It derives safety in another way. 

 Its plumage of mottled brown is eminently protective 



