A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE 



1 68. Avocet. Recurvlrostra avocetta, Linn. 

 Hastings gave the following, in 1832, re- 

 specting this bird : ' The avocet, Recurvlrostra 

 avocetta, was shot a few years ago close to 

 Worcester bridge.' Another avocet (unless 

 it was the one above mentioned) was shot 

 near Worcester a good many years ago, and 

 when mounted by Mr. H. Holloway of that 

 city, went into the collection of the late Mr. 

 R. Berkeley, of Spetchley Park. Pennant 

 {British Zoology, p. 400) gives as a locality 

 for the occurrence of the avocet, the Severn's 

 mouth, and he also says that it is found 

 ' sometimes on the lakes of Shropshire.' It 

 was probably not very rare at one time on 

 the Severn. 



169. Grey Phalarope. Phalaropus fulicarius 



(Linn.). 

 This is an occasional visitor to our county 

 in considerable numbers in certain seasons, 

 but only occasionally, years passing without 

 the occurrence of a solitary one. The most 

 recent dates of its appearance are 1 89 1 and 

 1896, when a considerable number were ob- 

 served, as I learn from Mr. Edwards, the 

 curator of the Worcester Museum. He in- 

 formed me that they frequented the meadows 

 near Powick. 



170. Woodcock. Scolopax rusticula, Linn. 

 The woodcock is common as an autumn 



visitor, and is generally distributed in the 

 county, though not anywhere very abundant. 

 It requires places suited to its particular habits, 

 which do not correspond with those of other 

 Scolopacidts. Old sportsmen assert that the 

 woodcock, besides frequenting wet places, is 

 partial to dry bottoms in woods where there 

 is underwood, and where the leaves in winter 

 lie thick. These the woodcock is reported to 

 turn over in the search for food, which is said 

 to be insects ; and, furthermore, they say that 

 they can determine whether it was a wood- 

 cock or a blackbird which had been feeding. 

 The latter bird, we know, flings the leaves ofF 

 right and left, and leaves them scattered 

 about ; but the woodcock, we are informed, 

 merely turns them over. The woodcock breeds 

 sparingly in Wyre Forest, and it is believed 

 in some other of the large woods in Wor- 

 cestershire ; Lees mentions Martley, Acton 

 Beauchamp and Lulsley as localities where it 

 has nested, and other localities could be given. 



171. Great Snipe. Ga//inago major {Gmelin). 

 I include this in the Worcestershire list 



wholly on the authority of Sir Charles Hast- 

 ings ; but at most it is only a very casual 

 straggler on the autumn migration. 



172. Common Snipe. Ga/iinago ca^kstis {Fren- 



zel). 



It would be useless to say that the snipe is 

 not much less abundant than formerly. Many 

 places at one time suitable to its habits have 

 been drained, and are no longer frequented. 

 The snipe is very rarely seen with us in the 

 summer, and I have never heard of a nest 

 having been discovered. Occasionally, how- 

 ever, one appears in the end of the summer 

 or the early autumn. 



In July, 1 849, my brother, W. B. Tomes, 

 flushed a snipe on several consecutive days 

 from the dry and shingly bed of a brook in 

 connection with the Avon, and, as the date as 

 well as the spot was remarkable, he shot the 

 bird on the 29th of that month. It came 

 into my hands the same day, and when 

 proceeding to preserve it, I observed what had 

 the appearance of a flesh maggot in its mouth ; 

 and such it proved to be. An examination of 

 the spot revealed the presence in an overhang- 

 ing withy tree of some parts of a dead sheep, 

 which had been hung there by a shepherd, 

 and from which had fallen the unusual food 

 above mentioned, and on which the snipe had 

 doubtless been feeding for several days. It 

 was probably a distant straggler, and certainly 

 a very remarkable one, all the upper parts 

 being very richly and thickly pencilled with 

 bright rufous, the usual light-coloured longitu- 

 dinal markings being reduced to little more 

 than mere lines. In the nature of the mark- 

 ings on the back this bird bore some resem- 

 blance to Sabine's snipe, though not in colour. 



173. Jack Snipe. Gal/inago gal/inula (Linn.). 

 This is essentially a solitary species, more 



than one being very seldom seen at the same 

 spot except on migration. It is a skulking 

 little bird, requiring more cover than the 

 common snipe, but nevertheless is easily ac- 

 commodated ; almost any dirty puddle by the 

 side of a stream will do, but there must be 

 some herbage amongst which it can hide, for 

 it seldom appears on an open mud flat. 

 About the middle of October is the date 

 when we expect to notice some evidences of 

 its first appearance. 



174. Dunlin. Tringa a /piria, hinn. 

 Although so abundant on the coast, it is 



remarkable how seldom the dunlin is seen in- 

 land. It can indeed be mentioned only as a 

 rare straggler. Lees says it is a wanderer 

 from the coast, not more than four speci- 

 mens have come within the observation of the 

 writer during a period of half a century, one 

 of which was killed by flying against the tele- 

 graph wires of the railway near Evesham, and 



