BUTTERFIELD : LoCAL BlRDS OF WiLSDEN DISTRICT. 1G5 



breed about here more commonly. A few come to feed on elderberries 

 every autumn on Blackhills. 



Spotted woodpecker {Picus major). — A pair has bred in Bingley 

 wood for two or three years successively. I believe it leaves this 

 locality in autumn, returning in February. 



Creeper {^Certhia familiar is). — Common in winter, but very rarely 

 remains to breed. It is an interesting sight, and one which never 

 palls upon my sense from its frequent repetition, to see it busily 

 engaged, running up the trunks of trees, in search of food. It is 

 almost invariably in company with titmice in winter. 



Kingfisher iyAlcedo ispida). — It is not so common in summer as it 

 formerly was. I found a nest containing young in the Goit Stock 

 Valley a few years ago, but have not found one since. 



Nightjar {Cajrimnlgus europoeus). — Breeds on Blackhills every year. 

 I once found two young nightjars in Cottingley Moor plantation, and 

 it was quite obvious they had been hatched in the place where I found 

 them, although there was not a trace of a nest, not even a slight 

 depression in the ground, and judging from the relative sizes of the 

 young birds, one of them must have been hatched fully a week before 

 the other. 



Stock dove {Cohmba JEnas). — Several pairs breed about Mr. 

 Ferrand's estate every year. My brother and I found a nest in March, 

 1881, at the old ruins in Bingley Wood, which we at first mistook for 

 the nest of a ring dove. During the same summer we got very near a 

 pair, without at all disturbing them, in Bingley Wood. 



Common sandpiper {Totanus Jiypoleuco^) . — About the Many wells 

 reservoir, a pair, and sometimes two, may be seen every summer. I 

 shall never forget my first flushing an old bird from its nest. It 

 rollicked and tumbled about in front of me, pretended to be incapable 

 of flying, and screamed so piteously that it was with some difiiculty I 

 restrained myself from giving it a chase, although I knew it was all 

 a " pious fraud." Usually it is strictly terrestrial in its habits, yet one 

 which I saw in the Goit Stock Valley, a few years since, could perch on 

 trees with great facility, and should exigency require, it will betake 

 itself to water and swim with apparent ease, as I once witnessed one 

 which had been disabled with a gun-shot wound, plunge into the river 

 Wharfft to elude its pursuers, and swim to a point beyond the middle, 

 when, upon seeing my brother and I on the opposite bank, it turned 

 round and swam again to the left bank, where it remained concealed 

 amongst the tangled mass of roots. 



