BIRDS 



the writer was shown in the hands of a local 

 bird stufFer a box full of kingfishers (more than 

 twenty in number) mounted for the decora- 

 tion of ladies' hats. Fortunately however the 

 demand had fallen off, and the specimens 

 were no longer required by the hat maker. 

 But we must not credit the destruction of 

 kingfishers for such a purpose as the sole cause 

 of their rarity. Spring floods such as the dis- 

 astrous floods of 1887, when all the low-lying 

 meadows were under water, destroyed the 

 nests of the kingfisher wholesale, and from 

 that date there was a very obvious falling off 

 in its numbers. The bird still is found in 

 some numbers on the rivers and brooks in the 

 county. 



[Bee-Eater. Merops apiaster, Linn. 

 I can record the appearance of one which 

 was shot not far from the boundary of the 

 county, at Redhill near Alcester, on May 

 29th, 1886. It proved on dissection to be 

 a female containing five or six eggs, and as it 

 was in the company of a second, would pro- 

 bably have bred. Another, some years ago, 

 was shot near Longdon.] 



91. Hoopoe. Upupa epops, Linn. 



The hoopoe is mentioned by Hastings as of 

 infrequent occurrence in Worcestershire. A 

 specimen preserved in the Worcester Museum 

 was killed at the Yew Tree, Ombersley, and 

 recorded in the Zoologist in 1862 by Mr. A. 

 Edwards, who also referred to one which 

 occurred about twenty years previously near 

 the Trench Woods, about seven miles from 

 Worcester. He also secured a third which 

 was shot about the same distance from the 

 city between that time and 1862, the date of 

 his communication. A hoopoe was shot by 

 the late Mr. W. H. Ashwin at Bretforton 

 on the 4th of May, 1875. The latest in- 

 stance of the appearance of the hoopoe in the 

 county, of which I have any knowledge, is of 

 one shot near Shipston-on-Stour, but I am in 

 ignorance of the precise date. 



92. Cuckoo. Cuculus canorus, Linn. 



This well-known summer visitor is fairly 

 common all over the county. For many 

 years past I have had a very decided opinion 

 that the female cuckoo conveys her eggs into 

 the nests of other birds by means of her beak, 

 and I arrived at that conclusion from having 

 found both eggs and young in nests so placed 

 that it would have been impossible for her to 

 have laid her eggs there in the manner of 

 other birds. Once I saw a young cuckoo in 

 the nest of a wren, which was overhead in 

 the thatch in the inside of a cattle shed. The 

 young bird had its head out at the hole of the 



domed nest, and was being fed by the wrens. 

 It would have been impossible for the female 

 cuckoo to have laid the egg in that nest. 

 The above particulars were given by me to 

 Mr. Gould at the time he was engaged with 

 his great work on British birds. On another 

 occasion I found a cuckoo's egg in the nest of 

 a redbreast in some ivy against a wall, and the 

 nest was so close to the wall that the latter 

 really formed one side of the nest. More- 

 over, the nest was closely overhung by large 

 leathery ivy leaves, and a bird of the size of a 

 cuckoo could not possibly have sat upon it. 

 The nest of the reed-warbler is always sus- 

 pended between three or four upright stems, 

 generally those of reeds, and nests so placed 

 are often found to contain the egg or young 

 of the cuckoo, and it may be safely asserted 

 that a cuckoo could not lay an egg in such a 

 nest. 



I have great reason for suspecting that I 

 have more than once disturbed a female 

 cuckoo when laying her egg. It is not un- 

 usual in the breeding season to see a silent 

 cuckoo rise from some bare place, such as an 

 unfrequented road, and alight again after a 

 short flight, as if reluctant to leave the spot. 

 After two or three such short flights, a longer 

 one will bring the bird back to the place 

 where it was first seen — doubtless if, as is 

 now generally thought, the cuckoo takes her 

 egg in her beak, it would be laid on some 

 spot from which it could easily and safely be 

 taken up, and that would not be amongst 

 herbage of any kind, not even the grass of a 

 pasture, but on some bare place. Cuckoos 

 flitting before one in the way I have men- 

 tioned are not unusual, and are always single 

 and always silent. 



93. White or Barn Owl. Strix flammea^ 

 Linn. 



It is with the greatest regret that I am 

 obliged to record the very great decrease in 

 the number of this handsome, interesting and 

 useful bird in our county, but year by year it 

 becomes less frequent, and the time is not far 

 distant when it will be spoken of as formerly 

 known in Worcestershire. A very remark- 

 able variety was killed at the Limekiln Farm, 

 Martley, Worcester, early in the month of 

 June, 1897, which came into the hands of 

 the writer shortly after that date. The whole 

 of the under surface is of a deep yellowish 

 salmon colour. Around the eyes there is a 

 considerable extent of bright chestnut, and 

 the upper parts of the body are darker in 

 colour than is usually seen in the ordinary 

 specimens of the barn-owl. In size it rather 

 exceeds the usual individuals. This variety 



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