ST. ALBANS AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 
241 
It is possible that the long-eared owl, as also the cirl-bunting, 
may occasionally occur in the district, though, never having 
received a record of either of them, the writer has not felt 
justified in including them in the list. There is, too, more than 
one ideal nesting haunt for the Dartford warbler in the district, 
but so far the bird has never yet been recorded. 
(2) Summer Visitors .—These birds, nearly half of which 
consist of warblers, are known, as a rule, to come to the district 
in the springtime for nesting purposes, and having fulfilled their 
object in this respect, to leave again for more southern climes in 
the autumn or early winter. The list includes the following 
25 species:—Whinchat, redstart, nightingale, greater whitethroat, 
lesser whitethroat, blackcap, garden-warbler, chiffchaff, willow- 
wren, wood-wren, sedge-warbler, grasshopper-warbler, yellow 
wagtail, tree-pipit, red-backed shrike, spotted flycatcher, swallow, 
house-martin, sand-martin, nightjar, wryneck, swift, cuckoo, 
turtle-dove, and corncrake. 
The birds included in this list may mostly be described as 
fairly common, though naturally, as some of the species find the 
district more congenial to their requirements than others do, 
they are more numerous. Three of them, however, are decidedly 
rare, viz., the wood-wren, the grasshopper-warbler, and the 
corncrake, the last named having for some mysterious reason 
undergone a most striking diminution in numbers during recent 
years. Of the presence of the grasshopper-warbler a record 
has not been received for several years. 
With regard to the blackcap there is a most unusual record, 
a couple of birds of this species having been observed for 
several days in a garden within the city during the bitterly cold 
weather of February, 1902 ! 
It is possible also that the white wagtail and the reed-warbler 
might be added to this list, though there is no record of the 
occurrence of either of these species. 
(3) Passing Migrants .—These are birds which, as a rule, 
appear in springtime with the so-called “summer visitors,” 
but which, unlike them, do not appear to find congenial nesting- 
quarters in the district, and so pass on “further north.” 
Generally speaking, they again pass through the district on 
the return migration in the autumn. They include the ring- 
ouzel, wheatear, quail, stone-curlew, common sandpiper, and 
green sandpiper. 
Of these, the wheatear probably, and the stone-curlew 
certainly, nest every year within the county borders, though 
in diminishing numbers. The quail formerly nested freely in 
the north of the county, and the common sandpiper has been 
known to do so on one occasion. A wheatear’s nest was found 
at Smallford in June, 1887, “ under a tuft of grass by the 
side of a gravel-pit”; the only nesting record of the species 
for the district. Similarly the reported nest of the ring-ouzel 
found at G-orhambury in 1902 is the single instance of the 
