BIRDS OF THE HARLESTON DISTRICT. 135 



9. * LONG-EARED OWL (Asio otus). 



Occasionally found in the neighbourhood of the town at 

 Shotford Hill, and in other similar localities. In the fir woods 

 at Flixton the bird is common. 



10. SHORT-EARED OWL (Asio accipitrinus). 



An autumn visitor, occasionally shot by our sportsmen in 

 the stubbles and turnip-fields. 



11. *BARN OWL (Aluco flammeus). 



Too many of these most useful and interesting birds pass 

 every year through the hands of our local bird-stutters. They 

 cling tenaciously to their old nesting-places. A pair have for 

 many years haunted a hollow elm near the town, though 

 frequently robbed of their eggs, stoned, and shot at. If this 

 bird received the protection it deserved, there would be 

 scarcely an old homestead in the district without its pair of 

 Barn Owls. 



12. *RED-BACKED SHRIKE (Lanius collurio). "Butcher 



Bird." 



Now sparsely distributed in summer, the trim fences of 

 the modern farm affording the bird no nesting cover. 



13. "^SPOTTED FLYCATCHER (Musicapa yrisola). 

 A common summer visitant. 



14. ^MISTLETOE THRUSH (Turdus viscivorus). "Fulfer" 



and "Dow-fulfer."f 



Common. A noisy and conspicuous bird in autumn. 



15. "^SONG-THRUSH (Turdus musicus). "Mavis." 



Common ; disappearing in seasons of severe and prolonged 

 frost, as the winter of 1880 81. 



16. REDWING (Turdus iliacus), and 



17. FIELDFARE (Turdus pilaris). "Fulfer." 



Regular winter immigrants, the latter being the more 

 conspicuous and better known. 



18. ^BLACKBIRD (Turdus merula). 



Common. A hardier bird than its congener the Thrush. 



t In the hope of interesting my boy friends in the subject, I have given 

 the local names of a few of those birds with which they are most familiar. 

 The word " fulfcr" is here spelt as it is locally pronounced. The name is 

 also applied, and more properly belongs, to the Fieldfare. 



