Talbot : The Birds of Wakefield. 



67 



hissing sounds and cracking of the bills with which we were 

 received, showed that we were anything but welcome visitors. 



Tawny Owl [Syrnium stridula) — 



I have known this bird breed plentifully in Hickleton, Bilham, 

 and Brodsworth Woods. Its nest is occasionally found at 

 Walton Hall, Bretton and Woolley Parks, Newland, and at 

 King's Wood. 



LANIAD^. 



Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor) — 



One of two specimens, shot at Methley, was brought to the 

 Wakefield Naturalists' Society's Meeting, on the 17th Novem- 

 ber, 1864, by Mr. G. Lumb, in whose collection it now is. 



Redbacked Shrike {Lanius collmio) — 



A fine female bird was shot at Flanshaw, on the 26th September, 

 1866, by Mr. Smith, and sent to me to be preserved. 



MUSCICAPID^. 

 Spotted Flycatcher {Muscicapa grisola) — 



Its nest, during the breeding season, may be found on any of 

 the estates in the neighbourhood, and it occasionally builds in St. 

 John's Church yard in this town. It does not seem to be at all 

 particular as to the situation of its nest, as the following circum- 

 stance will show : — A short time ago, the wife of the gamekeeper 

 living at Methley Lodge, having no further use for her pattens, 

 the weather being dry and warm, hung them up on a nail, against 

 the house wall, by the kitchen door ; a few days afterwards she 

 discovered, to her great surprise, that a flycatcher had built its 

 nest inside one of the pattens, and not being disturbed, it reared a 

 brood of young ones in this unsheltered and open place. The 

 most casual observer can scarcely pass this bird without noticing 

 the manner in which it takes its food, repeatedly darting into 

 the air, catching an insect, and then invariably returning to the 

 same twig or post. 



My earliest date of this bird's arrival is the 25th of April, 

 and for many years I have never noted its first appearance later 

 the nth of May. 



Pied Flycatcher {Muscicapa atricapilla) — 



Was shot at Hickleton, in 1853, by my friend Mr. Ball, and ig 

 now in his collection. 



