Field Note. 
230 
busy to go down to the sanctuary. The redwings come in in 
hard frost in winter, while most of the missel thrushes, great 
tits and many blue tits call in while roaming about the city ; 
a small flock of missel thrushes comes about September for 
the berries. Blackbirds and wrens seem little addicted to 
city street roaming. 
In the hard frosts it was found that the need for water, 
and not food, drove the birds into city streets, and territory 
rights in the sanctuary were forgotten, birds flocking together 
at the water. The greenfinch takes to city conditions much 
more quickly than the chaffinches and linnets which only 
come in in winter and so far cannot be induced to nest. Since 
the sanctuary was started, the size of winter flocks of green- 
finches has increased, and in 1932 two or three pairs stayed 
behind to nest and more did so in 1933. The greenfinches 
can now occasionally be seen in the neighbouring slums 
feeding on the manure in the streets, a common habit with 
city birds, with the sparrow flocks. Odd starlings, possibly 
the nesters, slept in holes in trees in the winter, but many of 
the birds roosted at a 25,000 bird starling roost on the edge 
of the city at Childwall, a little over three and a half miles 
S.S.E. The young starlings begin to flock in the sanctuary 
in early June, but do not leave, all the starlings, summer and 
winter, keeping to a well-wooded slope near the corner of 
food-tables, which we have named ‘ Starling Town.’ A 
cinnamon song thrush and many partly white sparrows have 
been noted. 
Cumberland Diptera. — These recent captures of Diptera 
supplement the short list in The Naturalist for 1931, p. 138. 
Flies without definite locality were taken last June in a grassy 
lane bordering a large wood some distance south of Longtown. 
Chrysopilus auratus Fab. scarce. Tachydromia pallidiventris 
Mg. common. T. nigritarsis Fin. Todhills 26/8, uncommon. 
Rhamphomyia longipes Mg. ( cethiops Zett.) rare. Empis 
cestiva Lw. fairly frequent. Phyllodromia melanocephala Fab. 
a common fly. Dolichopus angulatus Linn ( ceneus Drg.) 
rather rare. D. plumipes Scop, common. Hercostomus 
nigripennis Fin. common. Gymnopternus cerosus Fin. com- 
mon. Syrphus cinctellus Zett. Todhills 26/8 not rare. 
Pipunculus xanthopus Thoms. Todhills 19/8, several specimens. 
Psila pallida Fin. not common. Nemopoda cylindrica Fab. 
Todhills 26/8 very common. Phytomyza flava Mg. Todhills 
26/8 abundant. P. milii Kalt. one. Oscinis pusilla Mg. 
fairly plentiful. Hydrellia incana Stenh. common. Borborus 
equinus Fin. Sark Bridge 23/2, a very common fly about horse 
manure. Drosophila transversa Fin. Todhills 26/8 not un- 
common. — Jas. Murray, Gretna. 
The Naturalist 
