242 



Armitt : The Birds of Rydal. 



they are fed on various kinds of seeds — those of the Welsh Poppy, 

 eaten green, the Melancholy Thistle, and the small Viola coniuta. 

 This bird in winter will take the driest of hard seeds, notably those 

 of the late Blackberry flowers, that never swell to fruit ; as well 

 as Knapweed, Dock, and, I think, the dry seed of the Heather 

 plant. 



Reed Bunting. Emberiza schoeniclus L. Summer visitant. 

 Nests on the marsh at the head of the lake. Appears from the 

 middle to end of March. 12th March 1888. 



Yellow Bunting. Emberiza citrinella L. Summer visitant 

 to this parish, where it nests in a few spots on wild land. 

 I have never seen it here in winter, though small parties linger 

 round the farmsteads of the upper Esthwaite valley regularly at 

 that season. 



Sky Lark. Alauda arvensis L. Summer visitant. This 

 bird is practically absent from Lakeland, where, according" to 

 an old inhabitant, it once existed in fair numbers — a change 

 ascribed to the lapse of old corn-lands into pasture and meadow. 

 But it is a remarkable fact that a few pairs return each summer 

 to nest on the summit of our mountain range. It is to be heard 

 singing, I am told, on almost the topmost height of Fairfield ; 

 and the farmer, whose sheep range over the slopes, has found its 

 nest towards the top of the spur called Heron Crag — marked in 

 the Ordnance Map as Earring Crag. Its choice of this exposed 

 position, rather than the floor of the Fairfield basin, where 

 Meadow-Pipits have their home, is hard to understand. 



Pied Wagtail. Motacilla lugubris Temm. Summer visi- 

 tant. Numerous. Nests in walls and sides of barns ; and is par- 

 ticularly fond of a ruined building. Appears in March (generally 

 in the second or third week), and is then seen in companies upon 

 a fresh-ploughed field or lake margin, which shortly break up into 

 nesting pairs, but gather together again in autumn. At 

 this time I have frequently observed it rest upon telegraph 

 wires on which House Martins were congregating, and fly round 

 imitatively after these birds or follow them over the lake. It 

 sports also very prettily over the lake margins, and roosts in 

 the reeds. Generally it withdraws in early October, but odd 

 birds are often seen in winter. A solitary bird lived in Amble- 

 side through the mild winter of 1895-6. 



Grey Wagtail. Motacilla melanope Pall. Summer 

 visitant. Appears on the Rothay early in March. Nests on the 

 shores of the lake and on the streams. Withdraws in August and 

 September, but odd birds are sometimes seen in November. 



• Naturalist, 



