Page:VCH Derbyshire 1.djvu/177

 BIRDS 16. Blackcap. Sylvia atricapilla (Linn.). A summer visitor as a rule in fair numbers. It is pretty generally distributed over the low- lying country and is found locally in the wooded valleys of the Peak, but is absent from the moors and higher ground. Individuals sometimes prolong their stay with us till well into the winter. Thus J. J. Briggs has re- corded a male taken alive at Melbourne on November n, 1850 (Zool. p. 3111), and a hen was shot near Norton in the north of the county, by Mr. H. Turner, on December 1 1, 1 88 1, and is now in the Sheffield Museum (Field, December 17, 1 88 1, p. 898). 17. Garden-Warbler. Sylvia bortensis (Bech- stein). Locally, Garden Fauvet (N. Wood). Another somewhat local summer visitor, but rather more numerous at the present time than the preceding species. The reverse of this seems to have been the case in former years, according to most of the earlier writers on Derbyshire ornithology, and Glover (1829) omits it altogether from his list. Its distribu- tion is somewhat similar to that of the black- cap, but F. B. Whitlock says that it replaces that species in the Trent valley. In some seasons (in 1901 for instance) it is exceedingly common. 1 8. Dartford Warbler. Sylvia undata (Bod- daert). Locally, Red-eyed Whinling (N. Wood). Mr. J. J. Briggs (Zool. p. 2486) says : ' A pair were shot off the top of a furze bush half covered with snow on Melbourne Com- mon during some severe weather in the winter of 1840. The birds appeared hardy and lively in their manners.' No other instances of its occurrence in the county are known. 19. Golden-crested Wren. Regulus cristatus, K. L. Koch. Locally, Kinglet (Sir O. Mosley). A common resident wherever conifers are found, and nesting in all parts of the county. Besides these resident birds, many migrants visit north Derbyshire and the Trent valley in the winter months. There are entries relating to this bird in the Rev. F. Gisborne's shooting diary as far back as 1770. A pair nested in a deodar at Ashbourne in 1890, and on examining the spot eight years later, I was surprised to find another nest within 2 feet of where the former one had been placed. 20. Fire-crested Wren. Regulus ignicapillus, C. L. Brehm. Mr. J. J. Briggs has recorded one of these birds as shot near Melbourne in 1838 (Zool. 1849, P- 2 4^7)- Another was killed near Draycott 'a few years ago' by Mr. W. H. Hine (Birds of Derbyshire, p. 45). 21. Chiff-chaff. Phylloscopus rufus (Bechstein). Locally, Lesser Pettychaps (Glover). Generally the first to arrive of our summer visitors, and owing to its peculiar and quite unmistakable song easily recognized. As a rule it is first heard at the end of March or during the first week in April ; but in 1886 it was singing near Ashbourne on March 2 1, and in 1896 on March 23, while Neville Wood saw one at Foston on February 5> 1836, and noticed others subsequently. It is rather local, but a pair or two are to be found in nearly all the wooded parts of the county. From the bleak uplands and moors it is of course absent. The nest is always placed some little distance from the ground, and sometimes 6 or 7 feet above it ; one in trelliswork on the side of a house at Clifton was quite 10 feet up (Zool. 1900, p. 430). This bird has a curious habit of beginning to sing again about the end of August, and may be heard at intervals, especi- ally on bright mornings, during the first three weeks of September. In 1902 the song was heard as late as October 2 at Clifton, near Ashbourne. 22. Willow - Wren. Phylloscopus trochilus (Linn.). Locally, Peep. A very numerous and widely distributed summer visitor. It arrives about a fortnight later than the chiff-chaff as a rule, but has been heard as early as the first week in April, though the middle of the month is the more usual time. The nest is nearly always placed on the ground ; but one at Shirley in 1899 was built in a small dead spruce in a shrub- bery quite 3 feet above the ground (Zool. 1900, p. 429). This is by far the commonest of our Phylloscopi, and is found wherever hedgerows and trees can grow, breeding right up to the edge of the moors. 23. Wood - Wren. Phylloscopus sibilatrix (Bechstein). Rather a local and thinly distributed sum- mer visitor, but unlike the chiff-chaff is perhaps rather more common in the woods of north Derbyshire than in the southern part of the county. There are however certain districts in the south in which it is numer- 125