Natural History in the English Counties. 172 
placed is decidedly against the supposition that it is indigenous, and tends strongly to prove that 
it is only a summer bird of passage. For instance, Mr. Bolton, in his Harmonia Rurdlis, says that 
it visits the west riding of Yorkshire, and departs with its young in September. The Rev. Mr. 
Dalton, of Copgrove (also in the west riding of Yorkshire), states that he has frequently seen it 
about his house in the summer, but does not recollect ever to have noticed it in the winter, * 
Dr. Heysham, in his Catalogue of Cumberland Animais, observes that the pied flycatcher appears 
about the same time as the spotted, but is not so common ; and for the last three years we have 
noticed it regularly during the spring and summer in Cumberland, but as yet have never been 
able to see, hear of, or procure a single specimen in the winter, notwithstanding we have repeat- 
edly searcned for it in all the winter months during the above period ; nor can we find, from the 
enquiries we have made, that it has ever been seen at this season of the year in those parts of 
Westmoreland where it constantly resorts to in great numbers. 
The migration of this species appears to be principally confined to the northern counties, as it 
is seldom observed beyond Yorkshire, and rarely seen in the south of England, although it has 
occasionally been met with in Norfolk, Suffolk, Middlesex, Surrey, Dorsetshire ; and Mr. Greaves, 
in his British Ornithology, states, that in the summer of 1812 he found a nest of this bird with 
young at Peckham, in Surrey. In some parts of Westmoreland it is very plentiful, especially in 
the beautiful and extensive woods surrounding Lowther Castle, the magnificent and princely 
residence of the Earl of Lonsdale, where we have seen it in very great numbers, and where it has 
bred unmolested and almost unknown for years. On the contrary, we have reason to think it has 
not resorted to the vicinity of Carlisle more than five or six years, and, as far as we have yet 
been able to ascertain, only to one locality, where it is evidently upon the increase. 
In this situation the males generally arrive about the middle of April, the females not until ten 
or fifteen days afterwards: they commence nidification early in May, and the young are excluded 
about the first or second week in June. We have hitherto invariably found their nests in the 
hole of a tree, sometimes at a considerable height, occasionally near the surface of the ground, 
and, for two successive years, in the stump of a felled tree. In texture and formation the nest is 
very similar to those of the greater pettychaps, blackcap, and whitethroat, being only slightly 
.put together, composed almost entirely of small fibrous rocts and dried grass, always lined with a 
little hair, and generally a few decayed leaves on the outer side, but entirely without moss. 
Their eggs vary in number: we have found their nests with. five, six, and now and then with 
seven ; their colour a pale green, and so greatly resemble the eggs of the redstart, that it is fre- 
quently very difficult to distinguish them, unless contrasted together: they are, however, far from 
being so elegantly made, of a rounder form, and rather less, weighing from 23 to 80 grains. 
The males, soon after their arrival, should the weather be at all favourable, will frequently sit 
for a considerable time. on the decayed branch of a tree, constantly repeating their short, little 
varied, although far from unpleasing, song, every now and then interrupted by the pursuit and 
capture of some passing insect. ‘Their alarm note is not very unlike the word chuck, which they 
commonly repeat two or three times when approached, and which readily leads to their detection. 
The manners and habits of the pied flycatcher have considerable affinity to those of the redstart ; 
they arrive about the same time, associate together, and often build in the same holes, for which 
they will sometimes contend. On one occasion we found a dead female redstart in the nest of a 
pied flycatcher containing two eggs; and at another time, when both these species. had nests 
within a few inches of each other, upon the redstart’s being removed, the female redstart took 
forcible possession of the flycatcher’s nest, incubated the eggs, and brought up the young. 
We have now (August 26th) two young pied flycatchers, taken from the nest on the 2st of last 
June; and should we succeed in our attempts to domesticate them, we may, in all probability, on 
some future occasion, make a remark or two upon the change of their plumage from youth to 
maturity. 
Wheatear. We were not able to see the wheatear before the 12th of April, and then only a 
solitary male, notwithstanding we had repeatedly traversed the coast for several miles in the latter 
end of March and the beginning of April; and it was not until the 17th that we observed them 
in the more immediate vicinity of Carlisle. 
Grasshopper Warbler. 'The grasshopper warbler has been more abundant with us this year 
than usual; so much so, that we have been able to procure four specimens, and could have 
obtained more without much difficulty. These consisted of three males and one female: the 
plumage of the former nearly coincided with each other, but the female was entirely destitute of 
the brown spots on the breast, and all the under parts were of a uniform pale brown or buff 
colour. We have been induced to notice this circumstance, as it is stated-that no material differ- 
ence exists in the plumage of the sexes. Should this not be an accidental occurrence, it is possible 
the females do not acquire these marks until the second or third year. 
The stomachs of the whole were entirely filled with the elytra and remains of small coleop- 
terous insects, principally belonging to the family Curculionidz of Leach ; and we could not dis- 
cover the least vestige of any orthopterous insect, upon which they are supposed almost entirely 
to subsist, and which they are said to decoy by their remarkable note. 
Dotterel (Charadrius Morinéllus). At one time we had considerable hopes that we should have 
been able to have noticed the arrival of the dotterel in this neighbourhood with some degree of 
accuracy, having lately ascertained that it had regularly for some years past resorted to some 
open ground contiguous to Scugh Dyke, situate upon Broad Field, about nine miles south-west 
from Carlisle. At this place they usually remained about ten days or a fortnight, when they in 
all probability took up their residence on Skiddaw and the adjoining mountains, where they 
annually breed. Early in May, 1828, they were seen in the above situation in considerable num- 
bers, and from fifteen to twenty were killed about the 9th of that month, It is perhaps not very 
generally known that some parts of the plumage of the dotterel are in very great request by the 
manufacturers of artificial flies for fishing, which accounts for their being pursued and killed in 
such numbers; and it is probably owing to this circumstance that they are every year becoming 
more and more scarce in the vicinity of Keswick. We regret to add that not a single bird has 
been seen there this summer, which may partly be attributed to the numbers killed last year, and 
has, in ail likelihood, caused them to resort to some more sequestered place. ‘The eggs of the 
dotterel, we believe, still remain undescribed, which is somewhat extraordinary, considering that 
they constantly breed in the mountainous districts of Yorkshire, Westmoreland, Cumberlan9, and 
‘some parts of Scotland. Dr. Latham, it is true, in the last edition of his General History of 
* See the Supplement to Montagu’s Ornithological Dictionary. 
