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BIRDS ford, Gloucester, Oxford, Warwick, Stafford and Shropshire. It is by- far the most complete list of the birds of Worcestershire which has been compiled, but it is a list only, and supplies no details respecting the species occurring in the county. As the notices of the appearance of some of the birds were supplied by the present writer, certain of the following records are identical with some given in that list. While fully conscious of the many imperfections of the present list of the birds of Worcestershire, the very little help which has been rendered by previous writers must not be forgotten, and may plead for the indulgence which is due to what is really the first attempt to deal with the matter systematically. That there are scattered notices of species occurring in our county which have been overlooked in it there is no doubt ; while closer observation would doubtless bring to light the occurrence of birds of which so far there is no record. Saunders in his Manual of British Birds (2nd ed., 1899) gives the total number of British species as 384, an addition of 14 from 1889, when the first edition of his book was published. He thus classifies the birds : Birds that have bred in Britain in the nineteenth century, 199 ; birds that are regular winter migrants, 45 ; birds of infrequent occur- rence, 66 ; birds that have occurred fewer than six times, 74. The following is a comparative table of the Worcestershire birds with that of Mr. Saunders : — Birds that have bred in British Birds that have bred in Worces- Isles in nineteenth century . 199 tershire in nineteenth century 90 Winter visitors 45 Winter visitors 18 Infrequent visitors .... 66 Infrequent visitors .... 56 Occurred less than six times . 74 Occurred less than six times . 43 384 207 It must not be however assumed that these last two classes at all correspond, many of the infrequent visitors to Worcestershire are in- cluded in the birds that have bred in the British Isles, e.g. the buzzard and the little owl, while many of those that have occurred less than six times here are fairly common birds elsewhere, e.g. eider duck, stormy petrel and other water-birds. I. Missel-Thrush. Turdus viscivorus, Linn."^ not hesitate to help himself to articles put out This the first bird on the Worcestershire to dry on the garden hedge. The nest of one list is becoming scarcer of late years. It is of these birds at Cleeve Prior was found to one of the most harmless of our birds, while have a yard of lace woven into its substance, it is our earliest musician, pouring forth a while from the lining of another was taken sweet wild song from the very top of some a quantity of thick soft string, such as is tall tree almost before the frost and snow of sometimes used to tie sacks of corn. Deal winter have disappeared. But he is a sad shavings which had been swept out of a car- thief when material for the construction of a penters' shop were largely used in the con- nest is wanted, and, like FalstafTs soldiers, will struction of a nest, while shreds of bast matting from a garden were found to enter largely into 1 When the name of an individual following the the composition of another. But the most re- name of a species is included in round brackets it markable choice of material for a nest is the indicates that the original describer of the species following : The dairy women in the valley of did not adopt the generic name now used. the Avon wrap their pounds of butter in small