A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE 



early part of the summer of 1898, at Loxley 

 near Stratford-on-Avon. 



The margins of our streams and pools are 

 the almost exclusive haunts of this prettily 

 coloured and active little bird, where it may 

 be seen singly or in pairs, but no doubt on 

 migration, as it is obviously a come-and-go 

 visitor, and is not observed continuously at 

 the same place. In the spring one occasion- 

 ally appears, though but rarely. Lees says it is 

 ' not common ' near Malvern. 



[Blue-headed Yellov*' Wagtail. Motacilla 

 flava, Linn. 



The present species has been met with at 

 least three times near Welford-on-Avon in 

 Gloucestershire, which lies between two parts 

 of Worcestershire ; but there is no direct evi- 

 dence of its having occurred in the latter 

 county, though it is more than probable that 

 it has done so. 



The male may be readily recognized by the 

 bluish-grey of the top of the head, and both 

 male and female by the presence of white on 

 the three outer tail feathers on each side. In 

 the common yellow wagtail two outer tail 

 feathers on each side are so marked. One of 

 the Welford specimens, shot by Mr. W. H. 

 Baylies, and now in the author's collection, is 

 a female, but shows the white of the tail 

 feathers as above stated very distinctly. The 

 yellow of the under parts is also of a deeper 

 hue than in the common species, and is more 

 conspicuous when the bird is on the ground 

 or flitting before the observer.] 



40. Yellow Wagtail. Motacilla rail (Bona- 



parte). 

 A very common summer visitor, frequenting 

 ploughed fields and meadows, and nesting in 

 both those situations, the nests being always 

 on the ground. 



41. Tree-Pipit. Anthus trivialis (Linn.). 

 An abundant summer visitor with us, 



breeding in numbers, seeming to prefer mea- 

 dows and waste land for nesting-places to 

 ploughed and cultivated fields. 



42. Meadow-Pipit. Jnthus pratensis (Linn.). 

 This pipit, which is a common resident and 



breeds with us, frequents sheep pens in the 

 winter, where it sometimes suffers very severely 

 from the effects of wool becoming tightly 

 wound round the toes, which get loaded 

 with mud. This hardens in the spring, and 

 the toes are so much constricted as to be not 

 infrequently lost. The pied wagtail, also fre- 

 quenting the same places, sometimes suffers 

 similarly. 



[Richard's Pipit. Anthus richardi, Vieillot. 



Hastings says of this species : ' The Anthus 

 richardi is reported to have been killed in the 

 low meadows at Fladbury.' I assume that 

 the Avon meadows are here meant. There 

 is very great reason to believe that Richard's 

 pipit has been seen feeding on a patch of 

 shingle and mud in the Avon at Welford. 

 Mr. W. H. Baylies, residing at that place, a 

 most accurate obser\'er of wild birds, describes 

 the bird in question as having somewhat of 

 the elongated form of a wagtail, with the long 

 dark markings about the face well defined and 

 conspicuous. He was quite sure the bird he 

 saw was neither a tree, meadow or rock pipit, 

 with all of which he was well acquainted. 

 It is however possible it was the tawny pipit 

 {A. campestris), for which it is not difficult to 

 mistake Richard's pipit.] 



43. Rock-Pipit. Anthus obscurus (Latham). 

 All I can say of the rock-pipit is that it 



sometimes appears by the side of the Avon 

 during the winter, and that one year a con- 

 siderable number were shot at different locali- 

 ties in its course, some of them as high up as 

 Warwick. The impression at the time was 

 that they had proceeded up stream from the 

 Severn as a migratory flight. 



44. Golden Oriole. Oriolus galbula, Linn. 

 Of this handsome bird Lees says : ' Seen 



by the late Colonel Patrick near Whitehall 

 St. John's' ; and Mr. W. Edwards, of Malvern, 

 records the appearance of one at Malvern 

 Wells in 1869. I have the following note 

 which I made on the occasion of a golden 

 oriole visiting South Littleton in 1892: 'A 

 golden oriole was seen feeding with some 

 starlings on ripe pears in the orchard here in 

 the forenoon of the i2th of October, 1892, 

 which, from the brilliancy of the plum- 

 age, must have been a male. Being scared 

 away, he did not return to the same spot, but 

 was seen a week later in the vicarage garden, 

 which adjoins the orchard above mentioned. 

 After an interval of a few days, he was again 

 observed in the same garden ; and between 

 then and the end of the month he was 

 watched feeding on the ground, after the 

 manner of a blackbird, under an apple tree in 

 a close near to the same place. On each oc- 

 casion he was seen it was noticed that when 

 disturbed he flew right off and out of sight.' 



About the same time a golden oriole was 

 seen by the Rev. C. W. Simons, rector of 

 Saintbury in the parish of Willersey, which 

 adjoins Saintbury, and also Broadway, Worces- 

 tershire, and is about six miles distant from 

 Littleton. 



