Winscombe Sketches of Country Life and Scenery Amongst the Mendip Hills (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 Excerpt: ...eats are no loss where no other use is made of them. In the hall of Sidcot school used to be an old specimen of the Reg-ltgged Crow or Chough. Mr. Tanner had another, and there is a very tine one in Mr. Edwards' collection at Wrington. The species is now very scarce, and, like too many others, will be exterminated, if more effectual means are not taken for the preservation of rarities. Before parting with the great crow family, we must remember the visit to Bridgwater, in 1805, of the Nutcracker, as mentioned by Montagu. About twenty instances of the appearance of this bird are recorded by Mr. Harting in his Handbook, the last being at Christchurch, in 1868. Five others occurred in Devon and Cornwall. It is, therefore, quite possible that this interesting bird may be seen some day cracking a nut upon some Mendip oak, if they are not all previously sold. We have seen it doing so in South Germany, but oftener upon the top of a lotty pine, calling to its mate, at sight of wnom it took wing and disappeared in the deep forest. Starlings, an old inhabitant says, were never seen in Winscombe valley when he was young. Of late years they have been among our commonest birds; but the snowy winter of 1880-1 has greatly reduced them, as well as most other birds. The young starling is so different from the adult as to have been described and figured by Bewick and others as the Brown Starling or Solitary Thrush, of which Mr. Edwards has a specimen with the brown plumage varied with white. Starlings are useful birds, and do little or no harm; feeding almost wholly on grubs, beetles, and such creatures as the farmer and gardener wish to be rid of. A writer, quoted in the Birds of Somersetshire, says that during a very dry summer a flock of starlings had collected in a field...