1 56 Among the Birds in Northern Shires. 



onwards are a specially chosen haunt of this delicate- 

 looking little bird. It abounds in most, from the 

 borders of the moors right up to the suburbs of the 

 grimy northern manufacturing towns, and its sweet 

 little refrain is one of the most familiar songs of the 

 spring. Next, perhaps, in order of abundance we 

 should place the Wood Wren, the largest, and at 

 the same time the showiest of the three species. It 

 is interesting to know that for more than two hundred 

 years we have records of the Wood Wren in what 

 are now the western suburbs of Sheffield. Francis 

 Jessop of Sheffield sent an example of the Wood 

 Wren to Willughby, and Ray published a descrip- 

 tion of it in his Ornithologia, one of the earliest 

 works dealing with British birds. The Wood Wren 

 is the most attached to the woods of all the three 

 species, and its peculiar shivering " song" is a 

 familiar sound from the tree-tops throughout the 

 spring and summer. Lastly, we have the ChiffchafT, 

 certainly the rarest and most local of all. In the 

 south-west of England the reverse is the case, 

 and there its monotonous cry may be heard from 

 the close of March onwards to September. It does 

 not, however, reach the northern shires until the 

 first or second week in April, although we have a 

 Sherwood Forest record for March. All these birds 

 build more or less domed nests, usually on the 

 ground, and often in woods (the ChiffchafT some- 



