THE NATURALIST IN NIDDIERDALE. 405 
dale, I watched from inside my window a Blue Tit busily engaged 
in pecking at the apparently bare bark of a trained cherry tree, 
on the young shoots and buds, and when he had gone I looked to 
see what kind of food he had been eating. The extremities of the 
young branches and buds were covered with the Aphis, much 
changed in colour, very few being the light green they are in 
summer; they were dirty brown and black. The Blue Tit, 
through the autumn, goes in flocks with the Cole Tit and Great Tit, 
together numbering perhaps fifty birds. They like the sheltered 
deep valley of the Washburn, where all three kinds abound. The 
Blue Tit has a powerful, sprightly note like “ Chickwéed, chick- 
wéed, chickwéed,” quickly repeated. The Long-tailed Tits go 
in little flocks of six or seven; they have a sweet little single note, 
a straightish flight, stronger than one would expect, with their 
long tails stuck out behind. It is uncertain whether one of the 
Tits is meant in the lines :— 
* Parus enim quamvis per noctem tinnipet omnem 
At sua vox nulli jure placere potest.” * 
The Pied Flycatcher breeds in Bolton Woods, near Barden 
Tower, Wharfedale; at Bewerley and at Harefield Wood, Pateley 
Bridge, Nidderdale; and at Hackfall, near Masham, on the Ure. 
All these are deep wooded valleys. They rear two broods in the 
course of the summer; the first brood is brought off in May. 
On July 15th, 1869, the second brood flew from the nest at 
Bewerley. At Harefield Wood the site chosen was in an old wall, 
which can be entered in three ways, two of which are easy to the 
bird, and the third so narrow as to cause it to squeeze very flat to 
go in or out; nevertheless this is the one generally chosen. The 
cock appeared to build the nest, and used to prevent the hen from 
approaching till it was ready. Harefield Wood is on the west side 
of the hill, is admirably protected from the north and east, and is 
itself cover from the west. Accordingly it is one of the very few 
places in the district of which it can be said that it abounds with 
Whitethroats, Lesser Whitethroats, Spotted Flycatchers, Red- 
* From a very beautiful little Latin poem of the third century, called “ Elegia 
de Philomela,’ written by Albus Ovidius Juventinus (about 4.p. 210). It expresses 
the cries of forty-one different birds by appropriate verbs, and is the sole authority 
for the meaning of several of the Latin names. It is to be found in the * Anthologia 
veterum Latinorum epigrammatum et poematum.” Henricus Meyerus, Lipsie, 1835. 
Several pretty verses are cited in the present notice. 
