Chapter I: Preface

The present volume must be regarded more as a popular introduction to the bird-life of our northern shires than in any way as an exhaustive faunal treatise, although at the same time we believe almost every indigenous species has been included. For twenty years we lived surrounded by these northern birds, so that we may fairly claim to have served our ornithological apprenticeship amongst them. With the birds of South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire we are specially familiar; whilst repeated visits not only to the Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and Northumbrian littoral, but farther afield into Lancashire, and various parts of the Lowlands and the Highlands of Scotland, have enabled us to acquire much personal information relating to the avifauna of many a northern shire.

The difference between the avifaunæ of the northern and southern shires is strongly marked in many respects. Their study makes a record of avine comparisons of the most intense interest. The important effects produced by latitude and climate upon the bird-life of these widely separated areas make material for fascinating investigation, and have been fully dwelt upon as opportunities were presented. This variation in avine phenomena is not only far too often entirely ignored, but is apt to lead the student of bird-lore astray; due allowance has to be made in many cases for this difference in latitude, and all that it involves. The present volume, then, to a great extent a study of ornithological comparisons, will, we trust, be of some service to the bird lover or the bird student in his task of making allowances.

Unquestionably these northern shires from an ornithological point of view are much more interesting than the southern, and especially the south-western counties. Their avifauna is richer, and presents far greater variety, notably during the breeding season; whilst the marvellous phenomenon of Migration there unfolds itself each season in a manner that is never remarked elsewhere.

CHARLES DIXON.

Paignton, S. Devon.

CONTENTS.

Chap. Page

I. By Upland Streams 11

II. On Moorlands and Roughs 35

III. On Mountain and Loch 74

IV. On Heaths and Marshes 105

V. In Forest and Copse 131

VI. In Farm and Garden 158

VII. By River and Pool 186

VIII. On Sea and Shore 209

IX. On Crag and Sea-cliff 236

X. Migration in the Northern Shires 261

Index 295

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page

Bird-haunted Handa _Frontispiece_
The Dipper 15
The Gray Wagtail 25
The Common Sandpiper 28
The Red Grouse 38
The Twite 49
The Ring-ouzel 53
The Merlin 58
The Lapwing 67
The Ptarmigan 76
The Raven 77
The Dotterel 91
The Red-breasted Merganser 96
The Black-throated Diver 96
The Nightjar 107
The Stone Curlew 118
The Short-eared Owl 123
The Black-headed Gull 128
The Common Buzzard 135
The Woodcock 145
The Black Grouse 150
The Greater Spotted Woodpecker 153
The Rook 161
The Brambling 165
The Whinchat 174
The Yellow Wagtail 179
The Kingfisher 188
Titmice 190
The Tufted Duck 199
The Lesser Tern 211
The Ringed Plover 211
Sheldrakes 215
The Lesser Black-backed Gull 219
The Eider Duck 225
Gulls and Terns 229
The Razorbill 241
The Gannets 245
The Fork-tailed Petrel 255
The Fulmar 257
Migrants at a Lighthouse 270
The Hooded Crow 274
The Chiffchaff 287
The Wheatear 287
Fieldfare and Titmouse 292

AMONG THE BIRDS IN NORTHERN SHIRES.