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BIRDS As Staffordshire is an exclusively inland county, and occupies an area comprising some of the highest land in the centre of England, with bleak moorlands rising to an altitude of upwards of 1,500 feet above sea level it contains no large rivers, but at the same time it is the birthplace of the Trent and the Dove, and numerous smaller streams which become tributaries of the Severn and the Mersey. These smaller streams have in many cases during past centuries gradually formed deep gorges and well sheltered and wooded valleys much frequented by many of the warblers and other small birds, and forming also the home of the dipper (Cinclus aquaticus] and the ring-ouzel (Turdus torquatus}. The large meres of Aqualate and Copmere and lakes and reservoirs at Trentham, Han- church, Rudyard, Madeley, Chillington and elsewhere find a home for the grebes and are frequented in winter time by many species of wild- fowl. In the south-east of the county we have the extensive and barren heather covered tract known as Cannock Chase, where the red grouse (Lagopus scoticus] and the black grouse (Tetrao tetrix), owing to careful protection, once more abound, after having at one time almost reached the verge of extinction. The physiographical features of the county before referred to attract several species of wild birds in the breeding season which do not nest in many counties in England, such as the curlew (Numenius arquata), the ring-ouzel (Turdus torquatus] , the grey wagtail (Motacilla melanope}^ and the dipper (Cinclus aquaticus}. Staffordshire also borders closely upon, if it does not actually lie within, the range of one of the great flight lines of many of our British migratory birds, namely that from the mouth of the Humber and the north-east coast across England to the Bristol Channel. ' By this flight line,' says Whitlock (Birds of Derbyshire, pp. 16, 17), ' travel in autumn the whimbrel, curlew, greenshank, green sandpiper, wood sandpiper, little stint, longtailed duck, common scoter, Manx shearwater, gulls, terns, lapwings, golden and ringed plovers, hooded crows, fieldfares, redwings, sky-larks, chaffinches and mistle-thrushes, with occasional visits of the grey plover and bar-tailed godwit.' The return migration of these birds takes place by the same route to a great extent, and these birds meet our spring migrants coming by the same route, and thus Whitlock goes on to say ' we have two opposing streams of birds on the move at the same time.' Referring to this same flight line Dr. McAldowie 1 says : I believe this migratory route to be of great ornithological importance not only to Staffordshire but to the country generally. It brings many fine birds to our county 1 ' Birds of Staffordshire ' in Report North Staffordshire Field Club, 893, pp. 15-17. 139