A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



of our common species. In spite of relentless persecution the kingfisher 

 may still be found, though in diminishing numbers, all along the course 

 of the Wear, the Tees, and the Browney ; and I know of one secluded 

 spot, close to the river Wear, where the wild duck still breeds. It is 

 needless to say that outside the parks and preserved plantations there is 

 but little game in the central portion of the county ; while the mistaken 

 zeal of the gamekeeper has wellnigh exterminated every raptorial bird, 

 even the beautiful and harmless kestrel being but rarely seen. The 

 lapwing, in my younger days most abundant, is now very scarce in the 

 breeding season in the east of the county. From these remarks the 

 lower Tees Valley, still agricultural and free from collieries, must be 

 excepted. 



But when we pass from the coal-measures, to the west of Bishop 

 Auckland and Barnard Castle, we are in a region which may well rejoice 

 the ornithologist's heart. As we get on the mountain limestone the 

 features of the country are entirely changed. There is little arable 

 culture, meadow land predominates, till we rise to the grand expanse of 

 moorland, stretching to the watershed when we touch Cumberland. Here 

 and there are scraps of primeval forest. We have evidence that prior to 

 the denudation of the forests in the Roman times, for the working of the 

 lead mines, the district was well wooded, chiefly with the Scotch fir, of 

 which the stumps are found in the peat. Many streamlets run down 

 tiny dells fringed with stunted oak, rowan, and other trees. The dipper 

 or water-ousel may often be seen dipping and perching on a stone even 

 on the smallest brooklet. The ring-ousel remains on the moors from 

 early spring to late autumn, and fully appreciates the bird-cherry and 

 the rowan berry. A careful observer, as he strolls by the bed of the 

 upper Wear, may detect the pied flycatcher and perhaps the haw- 

 finch. When he ascends on to the moors he is greeted by the shrill 

 cry of the whaup (curlew) overhead, the wheatear jerks its tail as it 

 drops among the stones of a crumbling dyke, the ring-ousel skims 

 from a whin (furze) bush or perhaps at the foot of a neighbouring cliff; 

 and if it be before the dreaded i 2th of August the grouse springs from 

 almost under his feet and startles him with its whirring flight. A few 

 years ago the merlin might often be seen skimming over the heather ; 

 now, alas, these beautiful little falcons are rarely seen, thanks to the 

 ignorant zeal of game preservers and their keepers. The peewit and, on 

 Kilhope Fell, the golden plover are plentiful, and occasionally a heron 

 from Raby lazily flaps its wings as it soars up from some pool in a 

 mountain burn. The true dotterel is said to have bred on the heights, 

 but I can find no proof of this, and the nearest breeding locality I know 

 of is CrossfcU in Cumberland, where fifty years ago I took a nest of three 

 eggs. In one part of the upper Wear valley there has been extensive 

 planting of conifent within the last forty years, ami in these woods the 

 crossbill has bred, and I believe docs so still. One valuable game bird, 

 the blackcock, has very much diminished of late years, owing probably 

 to the reckless shooting of the hen birds by yearly game tenants, whose 



