BIRDS 



little stone boxes which were originally put there for 

 squirrels.' The Rev. Hugh Parry saw many of this 

 species at Belvoir Castle in 1893 ; and Mr. F. Bous- 

 kell observed them on several occasions at Knighton, 

 in May and June, 1889. Mr. G. Frisby saw them 

 feeding from Mrs. Perry Herrick's ' bird-table ' as 

 lately as 1906, and thinks they appear to increase in 

 numbers year by year. He has seen them nesting in 

 woodpecker's holes. Several were shot at Glen Magna 

 in the autumn of 1906 and winter of 1907 by 

 Mr. Tom Goddard. 



Mr. W. J. Horn writes in 1 907 : ' A pair are 

 generally to be found in the old elm trees in the Park, 

 Market Harborough, where they nest. I have occa- 

 sionally seen this bird in the woods near Hinckley.' 



35. Wren. Troglodytes parvulus, Koch. 

 Locally, Jenny-Wren, Kitty- Wren. 



Resident and common. Harley mentioned its 

 well-known habit of congregating of an evening, in 

 the winter months, and retiring to outhouses, 

 granaries, &c., &c., and said that at one time about a 

 dozen wrens were found, on a cold winter's evening, 

 secreted within the chimney of an outhouse near his 

 father's residence. It builds in all situations : holes 

 in walls, in ivy, in banks ; and the museum possesses 

 one built in an old hat, found in a garden on the 

 Hinckley Road, Leicester, in May, 1884, and another 

 built in a dog-muzzle from Long Clawson. Many 

 nests appear to be begun in the spring, and are finished 

 with the exception of the inner lining of feathers. 

 These, which are commonly called ' cock's nests,' are 

 popularly supposed to be built by the cock for amusement, 

 or through some exuberance of fancy. Mr. Dresser's 

 opinion is that they are used as houses of refuge in 

 cold or inclement weather an opinion shared, as he 

 says, by many other naturalists (see Birds of Europe). 

 Harley, however, believed that they were not built by 

 the wren at all, but by the dormouse. 



36. Tree-Creeper. Certhla familiaris, Linn. 



Resident and generally distributed. In the museum 

 donation-book I find the following entry : ' Remains 

 of nest of Creeper (Certhia familiaris), with ten eggs, 

 found embedded in the solid trunk of an old elm tree 

 containing nearly I 50 feet of timber, together with 

 the two slabs of wood, showing the cavity in which 

 they were deposited without any opening to the ex- 

 terior. Presented by Mr. Gimson, Saw Mills, Wei- 

 ford Road, 7 May, 1852.' Mr. Ingram showed me 

 a nest containing young in June, 1884, built behind 

 the loose bark of a tree at Belvoir. I saw a bird early 

 in February, 1892, on a tree on the New Walk 

 opposite the museum. Mr. W. J. Horn writing in 

 1 907 says that it nests every year in old pollard willows 

 on the banks of the Upper Welland where he has 

 found the nest. 



37. Pied Wagtail. Motacilla lugubrls, Temminck. 



Locally, Dish-washer, Peggy Wash-dish, Water- 

 Wagtail. 



Resident and common. Mr. G. Lillingston John- 

 son, of Ulverscroft, sent me in June, 1888, the follow- 

 ing interesting note : ' For the last four years I have 

 remarked, about 20 March, a flight of wagtails on my 

 lawn ; they begin to come by twos and threes, and 

 show on the lawn most punctually at 6.30 every 

 evening, till they accumulate to the number of thirty. 



They appear to be holding a matrimonial parliament. 

 After a few days they begin to lessen in numbers, and 

 to my knowledge only two pairs remain here to nest.' 

 Mr. G. L. Johnson writing again on 25 March, 1889, 

 said : ' Wagtails have come ; I counted eighteen last 

 night. They come punctually at 5.45 p.m." 



It nests often in extraordinary situations, stacks of 

 coal being frequently chosen, and a pair built in such 

 a position on 'Gulson's Wharf' in 1885. 



The Rev. Hugh Parry found a nest with five eggs, 

 on which the bird had been sitting for a week, at 

 Tugby on 1 8 April, 1894 quite an early date. 



Mr. G. Frisby, writing in 1906, says : 'I have 

 put out about 300 pied wagtails, roosting in the bul- 

 rushes previous to their autumn migration southwards.' 

 Mr. W. J. Horn writes in 1907 : 'On 10 April, 

 1902, I saw a variety of this species with black cheeks 

 and forehead.' 



[White Wagtail. Motacilla alba, Linn. 



I am by no means satisfied as to the validity of this 

 ' species ' or its occurrence in the county (see Browne, 

 op. cit. pp. 66, 67) ; and although Mr. W. J. Horn 

 writes in 1907, 'Most springs I see one or more,' 

 yet, bearing in mind that, at the best, it is merely a 

 sub-species or Continental form of the preceding, it 

 will be wise until specimens are procured to treat it as 

 non-existent, or doubtful.] 



38. Grey Wagtail. Motacilla mclanofe, Pallas. 

 Locally, Winter-Wagtail. 



A winter migrant, sparingly distributed and not 

 recorded until 1 89 3 as remaining to breed in the county. 

 I have frequently seen and shot it quite close to Leices- 

 ter, at the Aylestone Mill, and Mr. W. A. Evans saw 

 and shot some specimens at Leicester on the banks of 

 the Soar in 1885, 1886, and 1887. Mr. W. P. 

 Pycraft saw a grey wagtail in the County Ditch, Ayle- 

 stone Road, on 6 Oct., 1889, and I saw one on 

 the Aylestone Road on 12 Oct., 1889. Mr. W. 

 Pycraft also observed four in the Saffron Lane, near to 

 Underwood's brickyard, on 5 March, 1892, and Mr. 

 H. S. Davenport, writing from Skeffington on 1 5 May, 

 1893, reports for the first time the nesting of this species 

 in Leicestershire. One was seen at the Sewage Farm, 

 3 March, 1907, by Messrs. P. W. Druce and S. Maples. 

 Mr. W. J. Horn reports a pair which were running 

 about on the gravel in front of the ' Elms,' Market 

 Harborough, on 29 Jan., 1905, and says that during 

 the winter 19056 one of these birds was frequently 

 to be seen in his stable yard, and although it did not 

 come on to the bird table it ran about beneath it, 

 apparently picking up crumbs which had fallen 

 therefrom. He also gives the following records : 

 Seen near Hincldey 12 March, 1895 ; Medbourne 

 12 March, 1902 ; on the Welland 14 Oct., 1899 (3), 

 6 Oct., 1899, 22 Oct., 1899, and 26 Nov., 1899; 

 Lubenham 13 March, 1904; Market Harborough 

 25 Jan., 1907. 



[Grey-Headed Yellow Wagtail. Motacilla borealis, 



Sundevall. 



In the Mid. Nat. (1881), p. 257, the late Dr. 

 Macaulay stated that he had seen this bird near Kib- 

 worth on 2 May, 1880, but in a previous note of his 

 which appeared in Mid. Nat. (1880), p. 145, with 

 reference to the same bird he attached the scientific 

 name M. flava to the vernacular. The occurrence 



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