BIRDS 



ford, Gloucester, Oxford, Warwick, Stafford and Shropshire. It is by- 

 far the most complete list of the birds of Worcestershire which has been 

 compiled, but it is a list only, and supplies no details respecting the 

 species occurring in the county. As the notices of the appearance of 

 some of the birds were supplied by the present writer, certain of the 

 following records are identical with some given in that list. 



While fully conscious of the many imperfections of the present 

 list of the birds of Worcestershire, the very little help which has been 

 rendered by previous writers must not be forgotten, and may plead for 

 the indulgence which is due to what is really the first attempt to deal 

 with the matter systematically. That there are scattered notices of species 

 occurring in our county which have been overlooked in it there is no 

 doubt ; while closer observation would doubtless bring to light the 

 occurrence of birds of which so far there is no record. 



Saunders in his Manual of British Birds (2nd ed., 1899) gives the 

 total number of British species as 384, an addition of 14 from 1889, 

 when the first edition of his book was published. He thus classifies the 

 birds : Birds that have bred in Britain in the nineteenth century, 199 ; 

 birds that are regular winter migrants, 45 ; birds of infrequent occur- 

 rence, 66 ; birds that have occurred fewer than six times, 74. 



The following is a comparative table of the Worcestershire birds 

 with that of Mr. Saunders : — 



Birds that have bred in British Birds that have bred in Worces- 



Isles in nineteenth century . 199 tershire in nineteenth century 90 



Winter visitors 45 Winter visitors 18 



Infrequent visitors .... 66 Infrequent visitors .... 56 



Occurred less than six times . 74 Occurred less than six times . 43 



384 207 



It must not be however assumed that these last two classes at all 

 correspond, many of the infrequent visitors to Worcestershire are in- 

 cluded in the birds that have bred in the British Isles, e.g. the buzzard 

 and the little owl, while many of those that have occurred less than six 

 times here are fairly common birds elsewhere, e.g. eider duck, stormy 

 petrel and other water-birds. 



I. Missel-Thrush. Turdus viscivorus, Linn."^ not hesitate to help himself to articles put out 

 This the first bird on the Worcestershire to dry on the garden hedge. The nest of one 

 list is becoming scarcer of late years. It is of these birds at Cleeve Prior was found to 

 one of the most harmless of our birds, while have a yard of lace woven into its substance, 

 it is our earliest musician, pouring forth a while from the lining of another was taken 

 sweet wild song from the very top of some a quantity of thick soft string, such as is 

 tall tree almost before the frost and snow of sometimes used to tie sacks of corn. Deal 

 winter have disappeared. But he is a sad shavings which had been swept out of a car- 

 thief when material for the construction of a penters' shop were largely used in the con- 

 nest is wanted, and, like FalstafTs soldiers, will struction of a nest, while shreds of bast matting 



from a garden were found to enter largely into 

 1 When the name of an individual following the the composition of another. But the most re- 

 name of a species is included in round brackets it markable choice of material for a nest is the 

 indicates that the original describer of the species following : The dairy women in the valley of 

 did not adopt the generic name now used. the Avon wrap their pounds of butter in small 



