A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE 



ing, as the constant change in the districts makes the places they used to 

 frequent less and less suitable for them. The casual visitors are the 

 increasing list, partly because a number of the former regular visitors must 

 now be placed in it, and partly because birds are at present more closely 

 observed than formerly ; so species that used not to be noticed are now 

 recorded. 



Of the residents there are none that call for special notice, except 

 perhaps the blackcock {Tetrao urogallus), whose continued existence is a 

 survival of a different state of things, and due entirely to the fact that 

 until very recently the Crown held the Forest of Wyre. The red-legged 

 partridge [Caccabis rufa) is a modern introduction, the only set off against 

 the number of residents that have disappeared during the nineteenth 

 century. A small heronry still exists in Shrawley Wood, so that some of 

 the herons met with in the county are residents. Probably the snipe 

 {Gallinago ccelestes) has ceased to breed in Worcestershire, against this 

 there is evidence that the woodcock {Scolopax rusticula) breeds regularly 

 but sparingly. The losses include all the hawks but the sparrow-hawk 

 [Accipiter nisus) and the kestrel {Falco tinnunculus), all the owls but the 

 white owl [Strix Jiammea) and the brown {Syrnium aluco), most of the 

 water-birds — the wild duck {Anas boscas), moorhen {Gallinulo chloropus), 

 coot {Fulica atra) and dabchick {Podicipes Jiuviatilis) being now probably 

 the only real residents — and all the waders, if any ever bred here. 



Of the two classes into which the visitors are divided, the regular and 

 the casual, the regular seem to be decreasing chiefly from the fact of the 

 change in the condition of things, yet it is difficult to get the regular 

 migrants to forsake their old haunts ; for instance, the Black Country 

 near Oldbury is the last place where snipe would be sought for, yet in the 

 autumn when they are migrating, jack snipe [Gallinago gallinula) are still 

 to be met with on some of the pools in that neighbourhood, while yearly 

 a few gulls and terns come up the Severn seeking the places they used to 

 frequent before drainage and improvement spoilt their feeding-grounds. 



The casual list is swelled by those species that formerly came regularly 

 but now only come occasionally, such as some of the hawks, water-birds 

 and waders. In the Severn estuary a large number of the Anatidce 

 and Laridce are found regularly, these in old times, when the Severn 

 was tidal, came up with the tide to the marshes, which afforded them 

 shelter and food. Now the river in Worcestershire has been made non- 

 tidal by weirs and the Longdon Marshes have been drained these birds 

 only come occasionally. No gulls now breed in this county, those that 

 do come usually only appear in floods. Cormorants and shags have 

 a habit of wandering up the stream to meet the young salmon on their 

 migration downwards. The number of young salmon that migrate from 

 the Severn has very largely decreased, so that cormorants and shags are 

 very seldom seen within the Worcestershire boundary. But the casual 

 list has been largely increased, not only by regular visitants becoming 

 casuals, but also by the fact that every rare bird is now shot and stuffisd. 

 This has resulted in various additions to the Worcestershire list. For 



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