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 A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE ing, as the constant change in the districts makes the places they used to frequent less and less suitable for them. The casual visitors are the increasing list, partly because a number of the former regular visitors must now be placed in it, and partly because birds are at present more closely observed than formerly ; so species that used not to be noticed are now recorded. Of the residents there are none that call for special notice, except perhaps the blackcock {Tetrao urogallus), whose continued existence is a survival of a different state of things, and due entirely to the fact that until very recently the Crown held the Forest of Wyre. The red-legged partridge [Caccabis rufa) is a modern introduction, the only set off against the number of residents that have disappeared during the nineteenth century. A small heronry still exists in Shrawley Wood, so that some of the herons met with in the county are residents. Probably the snipe {Gallinago ccelestes) has ceased to breed in Worcestershire, against this there is evidence that the woodcock {Scolopax rusticula) breeds regularly but sparingly. The losses include all the hawks but the sparrow-hawk [Accipiter nisus) and the kestrel {Falco tinnunculus), all the owls but the white owl [Strix Jiammea) and the brown {Syrnium aluco), most of the water-birds — the wild duck {Anas boscas), moorhen {Gallinulo chloropus), coot {Fulica atra) and dabchick {Podicipes Jiuviatilis) being now probably the only real residents — and all the waders, if any ever bred here. Of the two classes into which the visitors are divided, the regular and the casual, the regular seem to be decreasing chiefly from the fact of the change in the condition of things, yet it is difficult to get the regular migrants to forsake their old haunts ; for instance, the Black Country near Oldbury is the last place where snipe would be sought for, yet in the autumn when they are migrating, jack snipe [Gallinago gallinula) are still to be met with on some of the pools in that neighbourhood, while yearly a few gulls and terns come up the Severn seeking the places they used to frequent before drainage and improvement spoilt their feeding-grounds. The casual list is swelled by those species that formerly came regularly but now only come occasionally, such as some of the hawks, water-birds and waders. In the Severn estuary a large number of the Anatidce and Laridce are found regularly, these in old times, when the Severn was tidal, came up with the tide to the marshes, which afforded them shelter and food. Now the river in Worcestershire has been made non- tidal by weirs and the Longdon Marshes have been drained these birds only come occasionally. No gulls now breed in this county, those that do come usually only appear in floods. Cormorants and shags have a habit of wandering up the stream to meet the young salmon on their migration downwards. The number of young salmon that migrate from the Severn has very largely decreased, so that cormorants and shags are very seldom seen within the Worcestershire boundary. But the casual list has been largely increased, not only by regular visitants becoming casuals, but also by the fact that every rare bird is now shot and stuffisd. This has resulted in various additions to the Worcestershire list. For 140