Natural Histofyin the E?tglish Counties. 17S 



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 Ruralis, 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 ic 

 about his house in the summer, but does not recollect ever to have noticed it in the winter.* 

 Dr. Heysliam, in his Catalogue of Cumberland Animals, 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 searched 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 io 

 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 roots 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 30 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 j 

 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 21st 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 diffi(!ulty. 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 Curculionldae 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 Morinellus). At one time we had considerable hopes that we should hare 

 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, 18-28, 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 mor.e 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, Cumberland, 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. 



