325 



COMMON WILD BIRDS OF THE SCARBOROUGH 



DISTRICT. 



W. GYNGELL. 



( Co?i/iniicd fr()t)i page 261), 



*The Robin Redbreast {Erithctciis rubecula L.). Although I have given 

 the bird's second name 1 can scarcely ever remember here or elsewhere 

 having heard the word ' redbreast ' used. As common here as anywhere 

 else in Britain year in and year out, its cheering and encouraging song I 

 have heard on every day of the year ; once on Christmas eve in the Market 

 Hall, Scarborough. Once on the building of a dirty back street in Bolton, 

 Lancashire, at 8 a.m. on January i6th. At Midsummer, I have heard it 

 from 2-7 a.m. till 8-^0 p.m. A roadside bank is the favourite nesting site, 

 but, like the Redstart, it often occupies a hole in tree or wall or discarded 

 pot or kettle. Sometimes right on the ground ; never more than six feet 

 above it. Moss, grass, hair, dead leaves, wool and herbage stems comprise 

 the materials that I have seen used. Eggs may be found in the nest from 

 April 1 6th till June 29th. Five is the usual set, though not unfrequently 

 six are laid, average weight -09 to one-tenth of an ounce. The usual 

 colour and markings are well enough known, often there is one egg in the 

 set much lighter in colour than the others. I have found them pure 

 white. The Robin seems loth to retire at night and when it is so dark 

 that one can scarcely identify the bird it will flit out before one's feet 

 whilst one is homeward bound through a country lane and snatch some 

 insect for supper, repeating the performance several times at great risk 

 of being trodden upon. Generally distributed throughout the district 

 in anything like congenial haunts, I have seen it occasionally on the rocks 

 of the sea shore. Once a Robin visited and pecked at some hawthorn 

 berries that had been placed in a vase of water on my outside window sill. 



*The Common Whitethroat [Sylvia cinerea Bechstein). A common 

 summer visitor here from Api'il 24th to September 15th and locally called 

 ' Peggy.' Usually haunting hedge-rows and woods, but on more than 

 one occasion I have come across it in small isolated bushes on the wildest 

 parts of the moors. Not a very free singer it may be heard in full song 

 until July 26th and I have heard it utter a few feeble farewell notes as 

 late as September 3rd. At midsummer it may be heard from 2-58 a.m. 

 till 8-50 p.m. 



It usually sings in hedges or low bushes or during one of its characteristic 

 short jerky ffights up into the air, but I have heard it in a tree 25 feet up 

 and sometimes whilst it was perching on a telegraph wire. I have found 

 its nest in brambles, furze and other bushes, hedges, honeysuckle and 

 nettles as low as 6 ins. and as high as 4 feet above the ground. The nest 

 composed of dry grass, fine rushes, roots and hair is always in my experience 

 of nests examined, finished off with a decoration of spiders' nests and is 

 in this respect unlike any other bird's nest that I know. The five eggs — 

 once only have I found six in a nest — vary most remarkably in ground 

 colour and marking, more so, I think, than any other small bird's eggs in 

 Britain, not excepting the very variable eggs of the Tree Pipit ; a rare 

 variety somewhat resembles the well-known pink variety of the eggs of 

 the Blackcap. I have a clutch of these and have heard of another York- 

 shire set, but have seen no note of this variety in any work on British 

 birds. The egg weighs -07 oz. 



*The Lesser Whitethroat [Sylvia curruca L.). Since I became familiar 

 with the somewhat feeble but very distinct song of this little bird I have 

 been surprised to find how much more common it is than is generally 

 supposed. One week in summer, having business in Bridlington, Driffield, 

 Beverley and Hull, I heard its voice in each of these towns. It nests within 



1918 Oct. 1- 



