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SOME BIRDS OF BIRMINGHAM. 
ESI DENTS of Birmingham have for the most part very 
little idea of the number of birds that either inhabit 
the various open spaces in the city boundaries or visit 
them on migration. In the course of fifteen years of 
observation over one hundred species have been seen, some of 
of which are exceedingly rare. 
The localities in which they have been observed are : various 
gardens in Edgbaston, the Reservoir, Edgbaston Park, Har- 
borne Reservoir, and the Botanical Gardens. Of these the 
Botanical Gardens and Edgbaston Park are still well populated 
by birds. The reservoir is now too over-run by holiday makers 
to be attractive as a breeding haunt, though twelve years ago 
several species bred there, and, except as a halting place for 
migratory species in the autumn and early spring, is com- 
paratively deserted. 
The gardens of Edgbaston generally are well supplied with 
bird life, and in one of them, Widdrington, fifty species of birds 
have been found breeding. 
The spotted flycatcher appears to be one of the commonest 
birds that are seen. In most gardens of any size there is at 
least a pair. They may be seen sitting on tennis netting or 
posts, and occasionally darting through the air after insects, 
returning to the same spot like a boomerang. The common 
sparrow has apparently caught this trick of darting after flies, 
but his efforts are, to put it mildly, hardly so elegant. These 
birds breed regularly in many gardens, when they are not dis- 
turbed, making their nests in ivy or creepers, and occasionally 
in the fork of a tree. The eggs are similar in colour to those of 
the robin, but much smaller. 
The chiff-chaff warbler is also a regular visitor in the spring, 
and his “chiff-chaff” may be heard along the less frequented 
roads. He breeds regularly at the Botanical Gardens and 
Edgbaston Park. The nest, which is domed, is placed on a 
bank and fairly well concealed. It is made of grass and lined 
with feathers, usually black. The eggs are about the size of a 
pea, and are wdnte with dark red or purple spots. 
The willow warbler, or willow wren, is also a regular sum- 
mer visitor to the Botanical Gardens and Edgbaston Park, and 
occurs m some private gardens as well. His full rich song is 
sometimes mistaken by those who do not know it for that of 
the nightingale. 
This latter bird is regularlj' heard in Edgbaston, and breeds 
in the park. During the springs of 1896- — 1899 °ne was heard 
singing near St. James’s Church, in the gardens between St. 
James’s Road and Pakenham Road, about a mile, that is to say, 
from Stephenson Place. 
The reed and sedge warblers frequent Edgbaston Park, 
