Page:VCH Worcestershire 1.djvu/188

 A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE early part of the summer of 1898, at Loxley near Stratford-on-Avon. The margins of our streams and pools are the almost exclusive haunts of this prettily coloured and active little bird, where it may be seen singly or in pairs, but no doubt on migration, as it is obviously a come-and-go visitor, and is not observed continuously at the same place. In the spring one occasion- ally appears, though but rarely. Lees says it is ' not common ' near Malvern. [Blue-headed Yellov*' Wagtail. Motacilla flava, Linn. The present species has been met with at least three times near Welford-on-Avon in Gloucestershire, which lies between two parts of Worcestershire ; but there is no direct evi- dence of its having occurred in the latter county, though it is more than probable that it has done so. The male may be readily recognized by the bluish-grey of the top of the head, and both male and female by the presence of white on the three outer tail feathers on each side. In the common yellow wagtail two outer tail feathers on each side are so marked. One of the Welford specimens, shot by Mr. W. H. Baylies, and now in the author's collection, is a female, but shows the white of the tail feathers as above stated very distinctly. The yellow of the under parts is also of a deeper hue than in the common species, and is more conspicuous when the bird is on the ground or flitting before the observer.] 40. Yellow Wagtail. Motacilla rail (Bona- parte). A very common summer visitor, frequenting ploughed fields and meadows, and nesting in both those situations, the nests being always on the ground. 41. Tree-Pipit. Anthus trivialis (Linn.). An abundant summer visitor with us, breeding in numbers, seeming to prefer mea- dows and waste land for nesting-places to ploughed and cultivated fields. 42. Meadow-Pipit. Jnthus pratensis (Linn.). This pipit, which is a common resident and breeds with us, frequents sheep pens in the winter, where it sometimes suffers very severely from the effects of wool becoming tightly wound round the toes, which get loaded with mud. This hardens in the spring, and the toes are so much constricted as to be not infrequently lost. The pied wagtail, also fre- quenting the same places, sometimes suffers similarly. [Richard's Pipit. Anthus richardi, Vieillot. Hastings says of this species : ' The Anthus richardi is reported to have been killed in the low meadows at Fladbury.' I assume that the Avon meadows are here meant. There is very great reason to believe that Richard's pipit has been seen feeding on a patch of shingle and mud in the Avon at Welford. Mr. W. H. Baylies, residing at that place, a most accurate obser'er of wild birds, describes the bird in question as having somewhat of the elongated form of a wagtail, with the long dark markings about the face well defined and conspicuous. He was quite sure the bird he saw was neither a tree, meadow or rock pipit, with all of which he was well acquainted. It is however possible it was the tawny pipit {A. campestris), for which it is not difficult to mistake Richard's pipit.] 43. Rock-Pipit. Anthus obscurus (Latham). All I can say of the rock-pipit is that it sometimes appears by the side of the Avon during the winter, and that one year a con- siderable number were shot at different locali- ties in its course, some of them as high up as Warwick. The impression at the time was that they had proceeded up stream from the Severn as a migratory flight. 44. Golden Oriole. Oriolus galbula, Linn. Of this handsome bird Lees says : ' Seen by the late Colonel Patrick near Whitehall St. John's' ; and Mr. W. Edwards, of Malvern, records the appearance of one at Malvern Wells in 1869. I have the following note which I made on the occasion of a golden oriole visiting South Littleton in 1892: 'A golden oriole was seen feeding with some starlings on ripe pears in the orchard here in the forenoon of the i2th of October, 1892, which, from the brilliancy of the plum- age, must have been a male. Being scared away, he did not return to the same spot, but was seen a week later in the vicarage garden, which adjoins the orchard above mentioned. After an interval of a few days, he was again observed in the same garden ; and between then and the end of the month he was watched feeding on the ground, after the manner of a blackbird, under an apple tree in a close near to the same place. On each oc- casion he was seen it was noticed that when disturbed he flew right off and out of sight.' About the same time a golden oriole was seen by the Rev. C. W. Simons, rector of Saintbury in the parish of Willersey, which adjoins Saintbury, and also Broadway, Worces- tershire, and is about six miles distant from Littleton.