280 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Pipit, Mealy Redpoll, Pine Grosbeak, Black Woodpecker, Roller, 

 Marsh Harrier, Little Crake, and Roseate Tern. 



The greatest "ornithological ornament of the county" is 

 stated to be the Great Crested Grebe, and the meres in the West 

 of Staffordshire, together with those of Shropshire, form one of 

 the chief breeding areas of this species in the British Islands. 



The accounts given by Willughby and Plot of the great 

 breeding place of the Black-headed Gull at Norbury, in this 

 county, are of course quoted under the head of this species 

 (pp. 135-136), and Ray's note of his visit to the spot in May, 

 1662, when on his way from Stafford to Nantwich (' Itinerary,' 

 pp. 216-217). But we are surprised to read that since Dickenson 

 wrote in 1798 to the effect that since 1794 scarcely a Gull has 

 bred in that neighbourhood, "there is no record of any more 

 recent nidification of the Black-headed Gull in this county."* 

 Dr. McAldowie does not tell us whether this species has actually 

 ceased to breed in Staffordshire for exactly a century, or what is 

 its precise status in the county at the present time. 



It is curious, too, that the author has not been able to find 

 any record of the former occurrence of the Bustard on Cannock 

 Chase. Possibly in the days when Bustards frequented the wolds 

 of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, and the downs of Berkshire, 

 Wiltshire, Hants, and Sussex, the heather upon Cannock Chase 

 may have been too long, and the ground too hilly, for a bird which 

 trusts so much to its legs and sharp vision in the open plains. 



The seven illustrations with which this volume is embellished 

 are, with one exception, from photographs, and give a good idea 

 of some of the more notable bird-haunts to be met with in the 

 county. The views given are the Raven's Clough (at the bare 

 and rugged east side of Cloud End), the Trent near Burton, the 

 summit of the Roaches (the breeding place of the Ring Ouzel and 

 Curlew), Dane Valley (the haunt of the Dipper, Grey Wagtail, 

 and Sandpiper), Cannock Chase, Dovedale, and Aqualate Mere 

 the favoured resort of the Great Crested Grebe. 



* This colony is referred to in an article on " Gulleries " published in 

 'The Field' of 2nd Feb., 1884. 



