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NOTES ON THE AVI-FAUNA OE UPPER TEESDALE. 



By JAMES BACKHOUSE, Jun., M.B.O.U., 



York ■ Secretary of tJie Vertebrate Section of the Vorkshi7'e Nattiralists Union. 



In the following paper, I have endeavoured simply to give a faithful 

 account of observations and inquiries made by myself during the past 

 eight or ten years in the upper Tees valley. As a rule, I have confined 

 my remarks to those species which may be or have been observed 

 above {i.e., west of) Middleton-in-Teesdale, for of the ornithology 

 of the valley below that town, I know very little. 



Upper Teesdale as a field for general natural history is scarcely 

 to be surpassed in England. It is a region of basalt overlying and 

 in some places intersecting the mountain limestone ; which latter 

 reaches its highest known altitude in the British Islands upon 

 Micklefell, where it appears at an elevation of 2,500 feet above 

 the sea-level. 



The mountains, heath covered, culminate on the north-west in 

 Crossfell (2,900 feet), and on the west in Micklefell (nearly 2,600 

 feet), forming the highest portion of the great Pennine Chain. 



The river Tees, rising in the former mountain, traverses a wild moory 

 valley for ten miles or so, when it reaches a lower level by ' Cauldron 

 Snout,' where it descends 200 feet; and again, five miles further still, 

 falls fully seventy feet at the famous ' High Force.' 



Beyond this point, with the exception of rapids here and there 

 along its course, there is little or no fall until it finally empties itself 

 into the German Ocean. 



Above Cauldron Snout (before mentioned) the Tees is broadened 

 out into a lake-Hke reach, known as the Wheal. This and various 

 natural mountain tarns and artificial dams (for supplying the lead 

 mines with water) form the favourite resort of numerous water-fowl, 

 especially during the winter. 



The soil of the valley, where the district is a limestone one, is of 

 the richest quality, and the variation of rock naturally yields a wide 

 and much varied vegetation. 



Even at an elevation of more than 1,200 feet, there is in some 

 places fine pasture land. 



On the Durham side of the Tees, at High Force, a portion of the 

 country has been planted as forest, and another smaller portion at 

 Bow Lees, two or three miles lower down the valley. There are, 

 moreover, two or three smaller plantations at a higher elevation than 

 the rest, which are devoted to the rearing of Black Game. 



On the Yorkshire side of the river there is no wood whatever, 

 until to within about two miles of Middleton-in-Teesdale, where 



Oct. 1885. 



