WILD LIFE IN A FACTORY DISTRICT.
T" persistence of wild creatures—call it pluck or folly— in trying to live wherever their ancestors have lived, in spite of changed conditions, is one of their most remarkable characteristics. There is probably no part of. England less favourable to animal life than the cold, wet, smoky, sun-for- saken, and over-populated district lying between Manchester,- Xdham, and Middleton, and undoubtedly most of its birds and beasts are, like the trees, dying out. But they die tvd: some few species, such as the starlings and sparroan, ha. even benefited by their unnatural surroundings; and oti.: when they are lucky enough to escape active hostility man, still contrive a precarious existence.
Something under a thousand acres in this district, part being within the city boundaries of Manchester, and the red in the borough of Middleton, has during the last half -century provided a resting-place for some of them. A pair of king. breeeregularly, always in the same sandy dingle still though not usually in the same hole ; they remain through the winter, and though they have a pond full of perch and , tench hard by, only sticklebacks have been seen in beak or nest. The nightjar comes in May, no doubt to breed, as there is an abundance of his favourite bracken-covered grotual, but the eggs have not been found. White says he" sometimes'. utters the churring note on the wing; here it would be fair t, say "very frequently."
The dabchick breeds, but leaves in the winter; the egos seem to be always wet and nearly cold, but somehow they hatch out. Perhaps those who have only seen his usual " squattering " flight would hardly believe that he can, and sometimes does, rise vertically from the water to a height of 8 ft. or 10 ft. The " common " sandpiper is still justified of his name: from the youth of many seen there can be little doubt that he breeds here, but no nest has been found. The green sandpiper, not frequent anywhere, is an can. sional August visitor: there are numerous little rushy ponds on the land, and it is always at the same two of these that he has been seen, never at the brooks and river beloved by his " common " cousin. The span-ow. hawk used to nest regularly in a big oak close. to the house, and was easily reconciled to a ladder and constant calls, but some years ago this tree was struck by lightning, and sines then his nursery has remained a secret. The kestrel has roosted without break on the rafter of a hay-shed, which was also the day-quarters for a barn-owl, but in neither case was the nesting-place known. The merlin comes at intervals, but not to breed. Once only was the snipe's nest found; he ha; decreased steadily, but is still not uncommon.1 One rushy hollow a few yards square used to be an invariable find; the farmer drained it, and in a year it was as good dry land as the rest of the field. Yet for several shooting seasons it remained a likely place, though it grew only grass, and there was no visible suipiness about it. Is scent the explanation Jack snipe were never numerous and are less so from year to year. About the end of July a few dunlins come down from the moors : inland Lancashire calls them " whiffle-whaffles," a capital name. Landrails are slowly disappearing, but only at the same rate as the farm-land; moorhens are common enough, but protection is of no use to them, they are too quarrelsome to increase. The coot does not live here, and has only visited once.
Swallows and martins keep up their numbers : this seems curious, for the acid-laden air is very unfavourable to insect life, and much of their favourite prey must have vanished. The true May-fly, however, survives scantily, and also the North Country May-fly (the stone-flY), with some of the smaller gnats. The big dragon-fly is regular enough, and a few moths and butterflies, but the peacock and the humming-bird hawk h se not been seen for some years. These two, it 13 true, are always spasmodic in their occurrence. But though the swallow and house-martin persist, the sand-martin has almost gone. Last year, in fact, he never appeared in miusy them with neat clay brackets, to the confusion of the
owing to some of his usual haunts in England, apparently
peculiar weather at travelling time. The swallow s favourite place was the boathouse, and one year some scallop shells were put up for him, supported on strong wire loops. He v.ecepted the shells without demur, but buttressed artificer in wire. The lesser spotted woodpecker used to breed every year in the same hole • of a dead. elm-tree, kept standing for his special use, but at last something haPPened to his roof, and the full-fledged young were all drowned. That was thirty years back, and he never came again. The jaekdaws were happy in the chimneys of a disused wing, but it fell down, and the new building was not to their liking' They could, however, still prosper if they chose, for magPiers do so, and the rooks have multiplied largely, though the list crow passed many years ago. Wood-pigeons breed as they always did, but they are becoming quite a syny bird, as London knows. The native store of peewits Ls never varied, a flock of about sixty, but in the 5utumn this sometimes rises to several hundreds, and at the end of February golden plover join them for a week or two, and may be seen feeding happily between collieries and ejttoa.mills. Partridges are not extinct, but even in a good vason they now never get beyond two or three coveys, prob- ably owing to the great amount of trespass in a densely pargated country ; and the same may be said of wild ts. It is wonderful that the latter can exist at all, for the hen is a foolish mother at best, and insect food must be very scarce. Starlings flourish amazingly, and in some years have roosted in the garden in such numbers as ta injure or even kill some of the evergreens, and to keep their human hosts awake by their noisy squabblings for inside places on cold nights. One November 5th, 6th, and 7th came three days of continuous black fog, and by the 8th
were all lost or dead : they came no more the " sheep-stares " that year. A favourite nesting-place was in the end of the stable-wall, and it was noticed that the young birds always took their first flight on Sunday, no doubt encouraged by the quiet of the day. Young herons are always about during August and September, but it is not believed that
they are bred anywhere very near. One or two have been shot for the purpose of experimenting with the food of mediteval England. The verdict is "uninteresting." There is nothing nasty about the meat, nor anything very nice. Larks are still quite numerous, and titlark; fairly so. The latter seem to sing less than in other parts; and an old naturalist of the district held that thcir muteness coincided with the spread of railways. If birds lose courage, the gentle little melody of the titlark would be one of the first to give way before the noisy locomotive. Yet the sweet descending scale of the willow-wren is as often heard as ever, and the date of his arrival (April 15th) seldom varies by a day. Throstles and stormcocks (surely the Lancashire names are better than song and missel thrush) are not perceptibly fewer, and competent judges maintain that nowhere else in England is their song so full and liquid. It may be all imagination, but just possibly the nature of the atmosphere may account for it. "The ousel-cock so black A hue" is rather less common, probably owing to the paucity of fruit, but the redwings and fleldfaree come as ever at their appointed season, and so does the cuckoo, and even the woodcock has never yet forgotten the oozy dingles that his forbears loved.
Still fairly numerous are the chaffinch, greenfinch, yellow. hammer, wren, the titmouse (great, blue, and cole), hedge- sparrow, robin, pied wagtail and Ray's, and the spotted fly- catcher. Less frequent, the wheatear, whinchat, redstart, whitethroat, chiffchaff, golden crest, reed-bunting, long- tailed tit, lesser redpole, and grey wagtail. Of chance visitors the most noticeable have been a small flock of crossbills one winter long ago, and more recently another of pied fly- catchers which stayed for two days in the spring. Short- eared owl, grey lag-goose, mallard, teal, widgeon, tufted duck, curlew, and gulls of sorts, all occasionally; and single instances of spotted crake, waxwing, cormorant, Arctic tern, silver-winged black tern, red-headed pochard, and golden. eye.
The beasts have fared worse in the struggle for existence than the birds: all have diminished in numbers, but the hedgehog, water-rat, and shrews (land and water) hold out hest. The legend of the hedgehog milking the cows as they lie in the fields at night is strongly believed in these Parts, amongst others, by the writer. Has its truth or falsity ever been considered established ? Stoats and weasels both grow fewer; the former have in several winters been killed cr seen in wholly or partially white dress. But the foumart is gone, poor thing! First there was the time when every man's hand was against him; massacres of hen- roosts were frequent, and at least one neighbouring house kept a pack of " foumart hounds " for his sole benefit. Then he became scarce, and tolerated; and finally, though his dwelling under the woodshed was well known, he was cherished as a friend. But even the last stage came to an end five-and-twenty years ago. The bare, strange to say, is
rather more numerous now than at that time, possibly because an Act of Parliament has been passed for his destruction. An interesting one lived two or three seasons cm a small island in the garden pond, reached by a little wooden bridge. After a time the bridge was removed, and the hare regularly swam across, the water being from 2 ft. to 3 ft. deep.
If manufacturing goes on. it seems that nearly all the wild things are doomed; but their extinction is slow, and in the meantime it is perhaps a little consolation to know that to some of us the survivors become more precious.
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