BUTTERFIELD : LoCAL BiRDS OF WiLSDEN DISTRICT. 163 



It is now generally agreed among ornithologists that, to have a proper 

 conception of the avifauna of a country, such stragglers must be 

 dismissed from consideration as of doubtful value or but little interest. 

 The following observations embody the result of many years' expe- 

 rience, and although all error may not be eliminated, I trust that the 

 moral element which should aim at making them accurate has not 

 been wanting. 



Tawny owl {Strix aluco). — A pair or two breed annually in Bingley 

 Wood, or about St. Ives, the seat of W. Ferrand, Esq. I saw a brood 

 at dusk one summer's eve, I think in 1881, alight in a sycamore tree 

 beneath which I was standing. They had apparently just left the nest 

 which had been built, I conjectured, in the crevice of a huge rock 

 hard by. 



Pied fljcsitcher (Muscicapa atricapUla). — A pair commenced building 

 their nest in a beech tree in Bingley Wood, in May, 1881 (see 

 Natyralist, vol. v., p. 171), but from some cause or other they 

 discontinued operations — a result I very much deplored. It is an 

 exceedingly local bird, and I cannot state on what occult principle it 

 selects its breeding quarters, but doubtless it is connected with its food 

 supply. 



Dipper {Cipclm aquaticus). Breeds not uncommonly every year. 

 My brother and I found a nest last spring near Bingley, which was 

 built in a hole in some masonry constructed to divert a portion of the 

 water of the beck, for the purpose of supplying "motive power to drive 

 a waterwheel belonging to a mill. Beside the nest my brother found 

 a little fish, which we both thought had been brought for the young 

 by their parents, but had been accidentally dropped ; and on my 

 brother giving it to one of the young, it was bolted with evident 

 relish, which is, I think, a presumptive proof of its ichthyologica] 

 proclivities, although a great deal has been said and written to the 

 contrary. 



Ring ouzel {Tnrdus torqiw.tus). — Breeds abundantly in Harden 

 Clough, and occasionally on Black -hill. 



Sedge warbler (Sylvia phragmitis). — Although this is regarded as a 

 common and generally-distributed bird, it is somewhat scarcer in this 

 neighbourhood. It has been, however, commoner these last three 

 than the preceding ten years. 



' Blackcap C Sylvia atricamlla). — ^Not so common, and more local than 

 its congener, the garden warbler. Its song differs from the latter 

 species in being shriller, and performed in a more hurried manner, 

 besides lacking compass and melody. 



