9IOLOGY LIBRARY G NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. * _J J Q tr O Lu _J NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. BY LORD LILFORD, PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION AND OF THE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. VOL. . IL.LTJSTR.A.TKD BY MESSRS. A. THORBURN AND G. E. LODGE. AND A MAP. LONDON: E. H. POETEK, 18 PEINCES STEEET, CAVENDISH SQUAEE, W. 1895. BIOLOGY FEINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. TO WITH THE DEEPEST DEVOTION or HER HTJSBAJSTD. 812006 PREFACE. THE bulk of the following Notes has already been published at irregular intervals in the ' Journal of the Northamptonshire Natural History Society ' from its commencement in 1880 up to the end of 1893. I must explain my frequent reference to various parts of the world by stating that in the early years of our Society's existence we had not any member but myself who had devoted any special attention to ornithology, and I therefore thought it well to tell all that I knew from personal experience with regard to the birds of which I had to treat. With reference to the scope of these observations, I soon found it extremely irksome to confine them strictly to the political boundaries of our county, and have therefore occasionally over- stepped these arbitrary limits into the bordering counties of Huntingdon, Bedford, and Cambridge, doing my best not to trespass into Oxfordshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, or Lincolnshire, whose orni- thology has been dealt with by other authors. Our viii PREFACE. county is so easy of access, and has been so well described and illustrated in all its aspects, except that of ornithology, that I consider it as quite super- fluous to attempt any description of its geology and other natural conditions. I have no pretence to the title of scientific ornithologist, but I have been a lover of birds since my earliest years, and a close observer of their habits, till debarred from such observation by physical infirmity. LILFORD. November 1895. CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. Page DEDICATION v PREFACE vii CONTENTS ix LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS xv 1. GOLDEN EAGLE 3 2. WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. SEA- EAGLE .... 5 3. OSPREY 7 4. PEREGRINE FALCON 10 5. HOBBY 14 6. MERLIN 19 7. KESTREL 23 8. SPARROW-HAWK 26 9. KITE 30 10. COMMON BUZZARD 35 11. ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD 39 12. HONEY-BUZZARD 41 13. MARSH-HARRIER 44 14. HEN-HARRIER 46 15. MONTAGU'S HARRIER 48 16. TAWNY OWL . . 49 17. LONG-EARED OWL 51 18. SHORT-EARED OWL 54 19. SCOPS OWL 57 X CONTENTS OF VOL. I. Page 20. BARN OWL 60 21. LITTLE OWL 66 22. GREAT GREY SHRIKE 69 23. RED-BACKED SHRIKE . 74 24. WOODCHAT 78 25. SPOTTED FLYCATCHER 80 26. PIED FLYCATCHER 82 27. GOLDEN ORIOLE 84 28. DIPPER ' 86 29. MISTLETOE-THRUSH 90 30. SONG-THRUSH 91 31. REDWING 93 32. FIELDFARE 95 33. BLACKBIRD 98 34. RING-OUZEL .99 35. HEDGE-SPARROW 101 36. REDBREAST 103 37. NIGHTINGALE 105 38. REDSTART 107 39. BLACK REDSTART 108 40. STONECHAT 110 41. WHINCHAT 112 42. WHEATEAR 114 43. GREAT REED-WARBLE K ? , 116 44. REED- WARBLER 118 45. SEDGE- WARBLER 120 46. GRASSHOPPER WARBLER 122 47. W T HITETHROAT 124 48. LESSER WHITETHKO AT 125 49. GARDEN- WARBLER 127 50. BLACKCAP 129 51. WOOD-WREN 130 52. WILLOW- WREN. 131 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. X { Page 53. CHIFPCHAFF . . 133 54. GOLDEN-CHESTED WREN 134 55. WREN 136 56. TREE-CREEPER , ... 137 57. NUTHATCH 138 58. GREAT TITMOUSE 141 59. BLUE TITMOUSE 142 60. COAL TITMOUSE 143 61. MARSH-TITMOUSE . . 145 62. LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE 146 63. BEARDED TITMOUSE 148 64. WAXWING 150 65. PIED WAGTAIL 153 66. GREY WAGTAIL 157 67. YELLOW WAGTAIL 158 68. TREE-PIPIT 159 69. MEADOW-PIPIT 161 70. RICHARD'S PIPIT 163 71. SKY-LARK 163 72. WOOD-LARK 167 73. SNOW-BUNTING 169 74. REED-BUNTING 172 75. COMMON BUNTING 174 76. YELLOW BUNTING or YELLOW HAMMER . . 175 77. GIRL-BUNTING 176 78. CHAFFINCH 178 79. BRAMBLING 179 80. TREE-SPARROW 181 81. HOUSE-SPARROW 183 82. HAWFINCH 185 83. GREENFINCH 189 84. GOLDFINCH 191 85. SISKIN 193 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 86. MEALY REDPOLL . . . . . . . . . 195 87. LESSER REDPOLL 196 88. LINNET 197 89. TWITE 198 90. BULLFINCH 200 91. CROSSBILL 203 92. STARLING 207 93. ROSE-COLOURED PASTOK 210 94. RAVEN 211 95. CARRION-CROW 216 96. GREY CROW 218 97. ROOK 221 98. JACKDAW 226 99. MAGPIE 229 100. JAY 232 101. SWALLOW 235 102. MARTIN 237 103. SAND-MARTIN . . . . 238 104. SWIFT 240 105. NIGHTJAR 242 106. CUCKOO 244 107. HOOPOE . . ' 248 108. ROLLER 253 109. COMMON KINGFISHER 255 110. BEE-EATER 259 111. GREEN WOODPECKER 263 112. GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER . . . . 267 113. LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER .... 270 114. WRYNECK 273 115. RING-DOVE or WOOD-PIGEON 276 116. STOCK-DOVE 281 117. TURTLE-DOVE 283 118. PALLAS'S SAND-GROUSE . 285 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. Xlll Page 119. BLACK GROUSE 288 120. RED GROUSE 292 121. PHEASANT '. . . 292 122. COMMON or GREY PARTRIDGE 296 123. RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE 304 124. COMMON QUAIL 310 125. LAND-RAIL 315 126. SPOTTED CRAKE 320 127. WATER-RAIL -. . . 323 128. WATERHEN 325 129. PURPLE GALLINULE 328 130. COOT 331 131. GREAT BUSTARD 335 132. LITTLE BUSTARD , 349 ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME I. Frontispiece : The Photogravure Plates are from drawings by A. THORBURN, and the Wood-Engravings are by G. E. LODGE. Page GOLDEN EAGLE . . .... . . to face 4 SEA-EAGLE 6 OSPREY 8 PEREGRINE AND KESTREL .13 HOBBY AND NEST 16 MERLIN 22 PAIR OP KESTRELS 24 SPARROW-HAWK WITH THRUSH . . . ... . . 29 SOARING KITE 31 COMMON BUZZARD WITH MOLE 36 HONEY-BUZZARD AT WASP'S NEST . . . to face 42 MARSH-HARRIER 44 MONTAGU'S HARRIER . 48 LONG-EARED OWL MOBBED BY TITS ..... 52 SHORT-EARED OWL WITH VOLE 55 BAEN OWLS AT HOME 61 INQUISITIVE INTERVIEWERS to face 66 GREAT GREY SHRIKE . 72 Xvi ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. L Page RED-BACKED SHRIKES AND LARDER 75 WOODCHAT . to face 78 FIELDFARES 97 RING-OUZEL AND SPARROW-HAWK . . to face 100 REED- WARBLERS 118 COAL-TITS IN DOUBT 144 A LONG-TAILED FAMILY to face 146 DISTINGUISHED FOREIGNERS . . .. . . . . 151 PIED WAGTAIL AND BROOD 155 SNOW-BUNTINGS 171 GIRL-BUNTING 177 BRAMBLINGS 180 HAWFINCH 186 GREENFINCHES, WITH NEST AND YOUNG . . . 190 A PRICKLY QUESTION 192 SISKINS IN WINTER to face 194 BULLFINCHES AND NEST 201 CROSSBILLS ON FIR-TREE 205 ROOK AND JACKDAWS 226 INTERESTED INSPECTION 233 HOOPOE toface 248 KINGFISHER 257 GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER 268 LITTLE WOODPECKERS AT HOME . . . toface 270 SAND-GROUSE 286 DRIVEN PARTRIDGES toface 296 SPOTTED CRAKE AND WATER-RAIL . . ,, 320 COOTS AT THEIR NEST toface 332 GREAT BUSTARD 339 NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. THE following notes on birds observed by me in this district have no pretension to be a complete account of the avifauna of our own county, but are merely the result of my own observations and those of friends on whose accuracy I could rely. I have for a long time entertained the idea of publishing -a work on the ornithology of Northamptonshire, and, having made this idea known, have received many letters containing information more or less valuable from gentlemen, many of them personally unknown to me, residing in or near the county. To all my corre- spondents I hereby offer my most sincere acknow- ledgments, and must offer a few words of explanation as to the causes which have hitherto prevented my availing myself of their ready kindness in sending me their observations and remarks. Many of these B 2 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE were plain statements of fact, and bore the impress of accuracy, but there were also many more or less vague, and requiring strict investigation and verifica- tion, and it is just this investigation and verifica- tion, which I have been unable, from ill-health and consequent long absences from home, to carry out as I had hoped in more favourable circumstances to have done. The same causes have prevented the possibility of a methodical series of observations of my own on the arrival and departure of our migratory species, the nesting-habits of such as breed with us, and many other points of interest, and must be my excuse for the many imperfections which will no doubt be discovered in these pages. But if any reader should by them be induced to devote more attention than he has hitherto done to the accurate observation of our birds, and especially to the record of such observations, I shall consider that they have not been written quite in vain. I have more than once heard it said that British ornithology is worked out, and that there remains no more to be done therein, but this I emphatically deny, and maintain that we have yet much to learn on the subject, and that accurate personal observation is and always will be of infinite value. For a comparatively inland county I think that our list of birds will com- pare favourably in point of number of species with any other, but recorded observations are lamentably few, and with the exception of the list given in Morton's 'Natural History of Northamptonshire' (1712), and a few scattered notices of birds in the 'Zoologist,' the 'Field,' and the county newspapers, I am not ac- quainted with anything in print on the subject. I may mention that I was fortunate in having for a AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 3 near neighbour the late Mr. George E. Hunt, of Wadenhoe House, who was a keen and accurate observer, and to him I am indebted for a great deal of information on the birds of our immediate vicinity. I am glad to think that the mania for the indiscrimi- nate slaughter of every so-called rare bird is decidedly on the decrease, and that in many parts of England the taste for ornithological observation is as decidedly on the increase. With the southern division of Northamptonshire I have very little acquaintance, and my observations must be taken as relating (chiefly) to the northern division and the adjacent portion of Huntingdonshire. 1. GOLDEN EAGLE. Aquila clirysaetns. A very fine specimen of this Eagle was shot by one John Barratt in the High Woods between Burghley House and Walcot, the seat of R. Nevile, Esq., in the month of October 1849, and preserved at the latter named place, where I saw it in 1859. I have no record as to the sex of this bird. The great majority of Eagles recorded as Golden in county newspapers and elsewhere, as occurring from time to time in various parts of England, have, on examina- tion, proved to belong to the other indigenous British species of Eagle, viz. Haliaetus albicilla, the White- tailed or Sea-Eagle, and the occurrence of a genuine Golden Eagle so far from its present breeding-haunts B2 4 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE is therefore an interesting fact. With reference to the Golden Eagle above mentioned, I am informed by G. M. Edmonds, Esq., of Oundle, in a letter dated February 29th, 1876, as follows : " Riding through Elton Park, as near as I can recollect twenty years since, I saw at 9 o'clock A.M. unmistakably an Eagle flying slowly about 100 yards from me ; 1 told some of my friends here A few days after this I saw in the Stamford paper that a Golden Eagle had been shot by Mr. Nevile's keeper at Walcot Park, near Barnack." I have no doubt that this was the same bird, and attach no importance to the discrepancy of dates, as Mr. Edmonds only wrote from recollection. I have received other notices of the occurrence of this species in Northamptonshire, but do not consider them sufficiently definite or supported by evidence to be worthy of particular record. I am glad to say that the Golden Eagle still breeds in many parts of the Highlands of Scotland, and in several localities is protected by the owners and lessees of deer-forests and grouse-shootings. I had frequent opportunities of observing the habits of this species during my nine years' tenancy of a wild dis- trict in Inverness-shire, in which they regularly nested. I never saw them capture or even pursue a bird of any sort, and have the best of reasons for believing that their principal food in Scotland consists of the Blue Hare and Rabbit. The specimen referred to at the commencement of this article was most obligingly presented to me by Mr. Ralph Nevile in February 1891. It is, in my opinion, in the plumage of the second year. Mr. J. Cullingford, of Durham, to whom I sent this bird for re-mounting, assured me that the flesh had not been AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. removed from the back, or the wing and thigh-bones. In spite of this neglect, he has made an excellent job of the restoration, and this Eagle has the appearance of a freshly-killed bird. 2. WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. SEA-EAGLE. Haliaetus albicilla. This Eagle, which may almost be classed as a regular winter visitor to the eastern coasts of England, has occurred several times to my knowledge in Northamptonshire in immature plumage. A specimen stuffed at Bulwick Park, Wansford, the seat of Lieut.- Col. Tryon, was killed, as the late Thomas Tryon, Esq., assured me, near that place. I have no record as to date, but it is at least forty years since I first saw it there, and it had then been stuffed for some years *. There is another specimen (stuffed) at Burghley House, Stamford, which was shot close to that place many years ago. Another occurrence of this species in Northamptonshire with which I am acquainted was in January 1875, on the 7th of which month a labouring man at work near Spring Wood, Benefield, observed a large bird flying low and pursued by Rooks. There was a strong wind at the time, and, so far as I can ascertain, the Eagle (as it proved to be), flying down wind, was unable to clear a high thick hedge, and became entangled therein ; upon which the man above mentioned ran in, and after a violent struggle succeeded in conquering the bird. The Fitzwilliam Hounds, with many * This Eagle was very kindly sent to me as a present by Mrs. Tryon, widow of Lieut.- Col. Tryon, in August 1891. 6 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE followers, arrived upon the scene of action at this moment, some gentlemen lent whip-lashes to secure the Eagle, and suggested to its captor that it had probably escaped from my menagerie, and that he had better bring it to me. I was abroad at the time, no bird was missing from my collection, but the person in charge gladly accepted this addition there- unto, set its thigh, which was broken, and when I came home in the following month of August I found the bird in good condition, but subject to occasional fits of vertigo. On inquiry I found that one of my gamekeepers had fired at an Eagle flying over Lilford Wood two days before this bird was caught, and I have no doubt that, besides breaking its thigh, a pellet of shot had lodged somewhere in the head and caused these fits, from which the bird never entirely recovered, and died in 1879. On February 27, 1891, I heard from Mr. II. Field, of Kettering, that a Sea-Eagle had been shot at Oakley on the 24th, and sent to him for preservation on the 25th. I at once sent a competent person to Kettering, and obtained the following details : The Eagle was shot by a man in the employment of Mr. Northen, tenant of Oakley Lodge, who had noticed it about all the afternoon of 24th. " Owing to the dense fog that prevailed it did not go to any distance, so he sent one of his men across the field gently, as the bird could see him, and this man crept up close to it under the hedge, so shot it through the neck, and broke one wing." Mr. Field informed me that this bird was a female, and measured 3 ft. 4 in. in total length, 8 ft. in expanse of wings, and weighed about 8 Ibs. It was eventually obtained for preserva- tion by Sir R. de Capell Brooke, the owner of the farm AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 7 upon which it was butchered (cf. l Zoologist,' June 1891). Mr. B. Went worth Vernon has informed me that he watched two Eagles (in all probability of this species) soaring high in air over his park at Stoke Bruerne near Towcester, for nearly two hours, in March or April 1891. I have received other notices of Sea-Eagles having been shot in and near the borders of our county, but they are all somewhat vague, and some of them with- out doubt refer to the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus). The White-tailed Eagle formerly bred in several localities in Scotland and Ireland, in both of which countries I have often met with it. I have a very fine female of this species alive here, which was taken from a nest in the county of Waterford in 1854, and is in perfect health and fine plumage at this time (December 1893). The White-tailed Eagle is a much more indiscriminate feeder than the Golden, and will not reject carrion of any sort. 3. OSPREY. Pandion haliaetus. This fine species has occurred several times to my knowledge in our county. It is thus alluded to by Morton in his work on the ' Natural History of Northamptonshire ' before mentioned : " The Bald Buzzard, the Sea-Eagle or Osprey of Aldrovandus, which is sometimes taken in traps in and near our Fenland, where it is very mischievous." A specimen was obtained at Milton, near Peter- borough, in 1823. It has been several times met 8 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE with and occasionally shot at Deene Park and at Blatherwycke, where one was killed in 1870 by H. O. de Stafford, Esq. T have an Osprey stuffed that was killed in the Park at Boughtori, Kettering, flying over with a perch in its talons, in 1869, and Mr. G. M. Edmonds, before quoted, kindly informs me that he saw and pursued an Osprey about Perry Herne, on the Nen below Oundle, for a whole day in October 1863. I have myself only twice clearly identified the bird alive in these parts, viz. on April 18, 1870, when my attention was attracted by a great uproar among the Rooks, which were busy at their nests in a large rookery at a short distance from this house and near the river. I looked up from my fishing, and saw a large bird flying towards me down the course of the river at no great height ; I stepped behind a bush ; and the Osprey flew over within easy shot-range, hotly pursued by a number of Rooks, of which he seemed to take very little notice ; he circled once or twice over a wide part of the river just below Pilton Bridge, and sailed away in a north-westerly direction, probably bound on a visit to Biggin Pond, near Oundle, where an Osprey was shot some thirty years ago, as I was informed by the late David Watts Russell, Esq. An Osprey passed within easy gunshot-range of me as I sat fishing from my boat on the river between Lilford and Oundle on August 25, 1883. I first saw the bird coming down the course of the river at some distance above me, flying low, and hotly pursued by a Crow and many Swallows, and I snatched up my gun, but soon recognizing the species of the stranger, sat still, and the Osprey came on till within forty or fifty yards before noticing us ; he then soared away AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 9 high in air over the deer-park, pursued by a cloud of Rooks and Hirundines. We had a good view of him on the following day near Aldwincle, and saw him make two unsuccessful stoops into a broad reach of the river. On this occasion some Wood-Pigeons disturbed from a wheat-stubble appeared to take some interest in the proceedings, and mobbed the Fish-Hawk in a sort of half-hearted fashion for a few minutes. This bird was last seen in the neighbour- hood of Lilford on August 29 (of. 'Zoologist,' 1883). On August 5, 1887, I saw a large raptorial bird soaring at a great height over the meadows near Lilford. I had no glasses, but have very little hesitation in pronouncing this bird to have been an Osprey. The Osprey was formerly a common summer visitor to the lakes of Scotland, where it still occasionally breeds, and where I have several times met with it. I believe this bird to be exclusively piscivorous, and, though I have never kept a living specimen, am informed that it will not thrive in captivity even when plentifully supplied with its natural food. I know few more interesting sights than that of an Osprey fishing ; the bird circles over the water at a moderate height till it spies a fish which suits its views, when it poises itself for a second or two, and falls like a stone upon its prey, which is carried off to some favourite rock or bough and devoured. Almost all the occurrences of the Osprey recorded of late years in England have been either in the spring or autumn, probably of birds on their way to or from the breeding-localities in the north. 10 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 4. PEREGRINE FALCON. Falco pereyrinus. This Falcon is an irregular, but by no means an uncommon, visitor to this part, at all events, of Northamptonshire ; and though the county does not possess any localities suited to its breeding-habits, I consider it, after the Kestrel and Sparrow-Hawk, unquestionably our most common diurnal bird of prey. To record occurrences would be tedious and unnecessary, but I may mention that there are stuffed specimens of the Peregrine in most of the country houses in this division of the county that I have visited, and that, from the middle or end of September till March or April, few days occur when it may not be seen about the valley of the Nen between Thrap- ston and Oundle. In this locality we have several high old trees, for the most part ash or elms, with dead boughs near the top ; these are the favourite look-out stations of the Peregrine, commanding as they do a long and wide range of meadow and arable land, and rendering the unperceived approach of a human enemy almost impossible. I believe that the Falcons follow the autumnal southward migrations of the Duck tribe, as I have several times observed that their first appearance hereabouts occurs exactly at the same time as that of our first autumnal wild fowl, Teal or Wigeon, for the former of which species the Peregrine has a very marked predilection. Besides the wild fowl, a good many Wood-Pigeons, Peewits, Starlings, Waterhens, and an occasional Partridge fall victims, but I do not look upon the Peregrine in this county as such an enemy to game as the Sparrow- AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 11 Hawk, which breeds with us, and has to supply the needs of four or five ravenous young just at the season when young Partridges and Pheasants offer an easy and tempting prey. But even allowing the game-destroying instincts of the present species, I would not on any account allow one of these really noble birds to be destroyed on my own property. The proceedings of the Falcon are open and straightforward : as a rule she comes from the clouds D like an arrow upon her prey, with a speed quite undescribable and incredible to those who have not witnessed it. The higher she is in the air the more certain her stoop, and the quarry is killed, if not at the first blow, as soon as her captor has recovered her breath ; whereas the Sparrow-Hawk will begin to pluck and devour its victim whilst still alive and struggling. Besides the above claim to protection from man, we should remember that the Falcon was our ancestors' principal sporting ally, and is surrounded by a halo of traditional associations which should entitle her to all respect. All this, however, has been urged so often by more able pens than mine, that I will not here continue my plea for my favourite bird, but refer my readers especially to that most excellent work ' Falconry, its Claims, History, and Practice,' by Messrs. Freeman and Salvin (London, 1859). In a wooded and enclosed district such as ours falconry is, though not quite impracticable as I have personally proved, yet subject to so many obstacles and difficulties that few persons would care to attempt it ; I am, however, glad to say that it is still carried on in various parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland 12 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE with considerable success, and is in my opinion the pursuit which preeminently deserves the untrans- latable title of sport. In the work just mentioned will be found, at p. 99, an amusing account of the method of catching Falcons for training in Holland. I only mention this for the reason that I have adopted this same method in this immediate neighbourhood, and caught four wild Peregrines thereby. It is a some- what remarkable fact that, although the great majority of Peregrines that I have known of, and seen shot and caught, in this county have been in immature plumage, every male has been an adult, or, at any rate, a twice-moulted individual*. I heard from one of my gamekeepers of his having seen a Falcon catch a Starling in the second week of August 1870 in this immediate neighbourhood. This is an unusually early appearance of this species in these parts. The Peregrine is known by many names amongst game- keepers and others in various parts of the country. I have heard it called Blue-Hawk, Partridge-Hawk, Duck-Hawk, Bird-Hawk, &c. ; but I think since I have flown Falcons in these parts that the proper term Falcon, or some modification such as Falkner or Fawkenhawk, is generally used. I have kept many Peregrines, both trained and untrained, and from my personal experience am in- clined to credit them with a high degree of intelli- gence, and, against the generally received opinion, a capacity for attachment to man entirely apart from " cupboard love." But the truth is that there is just as much variety of disposition and physical constitu- tion amongst Falcons certainly, and in all probability amongst other species of birds, as amongst dogs, * This paragraph was written in 1876, and no longer holds good. AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 13 horses, or human beings, and it is in the study of these peculiarities that a great part of the falconer's art consists. The Peregrine breeds almost invariably in cliffs both on the sea-coast and inland, and uses the same spot for that purpose year after year. I have often noticed in this neighbourhood that when a Falcon has established herself at one of the stands, or look-out places above mentioned, though she will occasionally tolerate the companionship of one other bird of her species, immediately that a third indi- vidual makes its appearance in her hunting-grounds a fight is certain to ensue, and the last comer generally has the worst of it. I on one occasion near this place saw a male Peregrine capture a Starling after some fine stoops high in air ; he earned off his prey to the top of a high ash tree, and was instantaneously robbed of it by a female of the same species. I ought to mention that in this species, as in most birds of prey, the female is the largest and most powerful bird, and is the " Falcon " of falconers, the male being distinguished by the name of " Tiercel." Peregrine and Kestrel. 14 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 5. HOBBY. Falco subluteo. The Hobby is a summer visitor to England and is by no means a very uncommon bird in this part of our county, where its nest is occasionally met with. Though less frequent with us than it was some twenty or thirty years ago, few summers pass without my observing one or more of these birds in this neighbourhood. In the month o'f September 1878, when Partridge-shooting near Tichmarsh, I repeatedly saw a Hobby in pursuit of small birds, and Mr. G. Hunt informed me that he observed one on several occasions during the summer of 1879 near Lilford. A female in adult plumage was shot by one of the gamekeepers here just outside the park in May 1875 ; and I am acquainted with many occurrences of this species in various parts of the county. The Hobby may easily be distinguished from our other small Hawks by its remarkably long, pointed wings, and its habit of circling high in air without, so far as my observation goes, hovering as the Kestrel continually does. In pursuit of its prey the rapidity of the Hobby is marvellous, and the manner in which it turns and mounts after making a stoop is quite un- rivalled by any bird of prey with which I am acquainted. In this neighbourhood this little Falcon seems to prefer Sky-Larks and Buntings ; I have often seen it also chase Swallows and Martins ; but this has seemed to me to be more in play than in earnest, although in a fair open field few of our small birds would have a chance of escape from a Hobby. It is, however, to a great extent insectivorous, and certainly AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 15 feeds on chafers and other beetles, dragonflies, and grasshoppers. The old works on Falconry mention the Hobby as having been often reclaimed and trained to take Larks and other small birds but principally with the aid of dogs and nets, by a method called " daring," of which I quote the following quaint description from 'The Book of Falconrie or Hawking, by George Turbervile, Gentleman, An. Dom. 1611,' p. 56: "The doggs they range the field to spring the fowle, and the Hobbies they accustome to flee aloft over them, soar- ing in the aire, whome the silly birdes espying at that advantage and fearing this conspiracy (as it were) be- twixt the dogs and hawkes, for their undoing and confusion, dare in no wise commit themselves to their wings, but do lie as close and flat as they possible may do, and so are taken in the nets, which with us in England is called Daring, a sport of all others most proper to the Hobbie." In the estimation of the Falconer the Hobby has one great defect : in spite of its remarkable docility and marvellous power of wing, it is a bad footer, i. e. it lacks the power or the will to clutch its prey firmly. This, at all events, has been the case with all the reclaimed birds of this species that I have seen, and arises probably from the comparative delicacy and weakness of the legs and toes, which are better adapted for the capture of insects than of feathered prey. The Hobby generally appears with us about the middle of May, and I think in most instances selects an old nest of the Carrion-Crow, Magpie, or Wood- Pigeon to lay in. The usual complement of eggs is three, though I have heard of instances of four young 16 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 17 birds being found in the same nest. The eggs are of a dirty white ground-colour, thickly spotted and blotched with a reddish brown ; and though they much resemble those of the Kestrel, are, I think, generally to be distinguished from those of that species by the lighter colour of the markings. But I need hardly say that almost all birds' eggs are subject to variety in colour, distribution of markings, size, &c. ; and there is such a general resemblance amongst those of our three British species of small true Falcons, viz. Hobby, Merlin, and Kestrel, that he would be a bold ornitho- logist who would venture confidently to assign a clutch of unidentified eggs to any one of the three species, though I admit that those of the Merlin have often a marked character to themselves. Many in- stances of the occurrence of the Hobby in England during the winter months are on record, but, as a rule, the bird leaves us about the end of September. The Hobby is a very high-couraged bird, and, as I have more than once observed, will dash out and drive off a Crow, and other birds of prey much stronger and larger than itself, that may happen to approach its nest. The cry of this species much resembles that of the Wryneck, (though it is of course louder and stronger, and may often be heard late on a summer evening when the birds are chasing insects about the old oak trees, as is their habit), as also that of the Kestrel. I have heard of instances of the Hobby attacking Partridges, but though I have often been accompanied by one of these birds when out shooting, and chances have repeatedly offered themselves, I never saw the Hawk take the slightest notice of any game-bird, and consider it as entirely harmless in that respect. I have found this species c 18 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE delicate, and difficult to keep long in confinement, but it is a delightful bird as a pet, from its great docility and fearlessness, besides its preeminent beauty of plumage and graceful make. A Hobby may be trained in a few days to follow its master anywhere. I regret to say that my gamekeeper shot a beautiful adult male Hobby on August 26, 1879, by mistake for a Sparrow-Hawk, at a short distance from his house, and within half a mile from this. He told me that after shooting this bird he saw another of undoubt- edly the same species within easy gunshot. It is my earnest wish to protect all birds of prey, except the Sparrow-Hawk and various members of the genus Corvus ; but perhaps it is too much to expect of a gamekeeper to discriminate in these matters, though in this instance the error was recognized in time to save the life of (as I hope) the female parent of a brood of young Hobbies. I am glad to say that since this article appeared in the ' Northamptonshire Nat. Hist. Journal ' the Hobby has certainly become very much more common in our neighbourhood than it was for many years previously. Between the years 1882 and 1890 inclusive I had positive evidence of the hatching-out of no less than ten broods of this species in our district, and sixteen nestlings were brought to me without, so far as I know, the de- struction of any of the parent birds. AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 19 6. MERLIN. Falco cesalon. This bird is one of the only three raptorial species mentioned by Morton in his ' Natural History of Northamptonshire ' in the following words : " The Merlin, which is credibly reported to breed with us upon Draughton Heath." Sir Charles Isham has kindly favoured me with an extract from the Diary of Sir Thomas Isham, of Lamport, translated from the original Latin by the Rev. R. Isham, which states : "Aug. 5, 1672, Clerk's son found a Merlin Hawk in its nest at a place called Haybrig." The Merlin was probably more generally known in those days than at present, as it was often used in Falconry, and as there was then a great deal of unenclosed and uncultivated land in the county, well suited to its breeding-habits, I see no cause to doubt the correctness of either of the above statements. So far as my own observation goes, the Merlin is now a pretty regular autumnal visitor to this part of the county. I have often seen it in this immediate neighbourhood in the months of October and November, and shot a young female close to this house whilst she was hovering over a hooded Falcon, which I had just placed upon a low wall, as I exercised another at the lure, on October 5, 1860. I well remember my father shooting a fine adult male of this species in Southern Wood many years ago, and there is a specimen in the same state of plumage in the collection at Wadenhoe that was killed at Bearshank Wood about 1872. There is a stuffed specimen of the Merlin at Bulwick Park, which was shot there, and besides those which I have c2 20 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE myself seen, I am acquainted with many occurrences of this species in our county, I think that the Merlin preys exclusively on small birds, and the Meadow-Pipit seems to be a very favourite quarry. I have seen many very pretty flights in our meadows at this bird and also at the Grey Wagtail ; the Hawk comes flying low and fast along a fence side, or often along the windings of our rivers and brooks, till a small bird springs up before him, when an interesting chase ensues, which, in the case of the two species just mentioned, does not by any means always result in a capture, for I have several times seen the Merlin, apparently disgusted and wearied by continual un- successful stoops, fly off to a post or rail, whilst the Pipit or Wagtail went jerking away, with notes ot self-congratulation on its escape. In Great Britain the Merlin generally nests on the ground, often on the steep bank of a burn in the moorlands, and occa- sionally on a tussock on the open moor. The eggs, according to Yarrell, are from four to six, but I have not met with an instance of more than the former number; they have the same style of coloration as those of the Hobby and Kestrel, but the tints are generally darker, and less of the ground-colour is visible than in those species ; the eggs are also smaller and not so rounded as in those of the birds just named. Though the Merlin, as I have just stated, generally nests upon the ground, this is not always the case, and the following instance to the contrary, kindly communicated to me by F. Hooper, Esq., of Huntingdon, though not relating to our own county, occurred in its close neighbourhood, and is of such ornithological interest, that I make no apology for inserting it in these notes on Northamptonshire AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 21 birds : " A young Merlin was taken from a nest in Rotts Wood, near Whiston, Hunts, about June 23rd, 1874, by a man named George Phillips, who took it to the Rev. T. Woodruff, at whose house I often saw and handled it, and knew that it really was a Merlin ; the nest was in an oak tree and contained five young nearly fledged." My friend Mr. Rooper is so fond of and so well acquainted with our British birds, that I feel convinced that there is no mistake here. In the fourth edition of Yarrell's 'British Birds,' vol. i. p. 76, I find it stated that in Lapland the Merlin commonly breeds in trees ; and I have a somewhat hazy recollection of having been informed by the late Rev. James Boultbee (who was at the time Rector of Barnwell) that he had obtained young Merlins from the nest in Barnwell Wold, a large wood belonging to the Duke of Buccleuch, about three miles from this house, probably well known to entomologists as a favourite locality for the Purple Emperor (Apatura iris) and other scarce butterflies, where the Hobby formerly nested pretty regularly. The Merlin is a very bold little bird, and will fly at and occasionally kill birds of twice his own weight, as is mentioned by Yarrell. I myself have seen a pair of Merlins fly at an old Blackcock which passed near their nest, and though they did not kill him, they knocked him into the heather, with the loss of many feathers, and so terri- fied him that, though not seriously wounded, he all but allowed us to catch him. The Merlin is easily trained, and will take Larks, Blackbirds, Thrushes, and even Pigeons, but requires a peculiar mode of treatment to be fed as much as possible upon live birds, and allowed more liberty to exercise his wings 22 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE than is necessary or usual with other Hawks. I have often been assured by gamekeepers in Scotland, and on the moors in the north of England, that this species is very destructive to young Grouse, and as all Hawks prefer the quarry which is the easiest to take, I have no doubt that this statement may be true, but here, in our midlands, at all events, the amount of damage done to game by these occasional ^Merlin, adult male. visitors must be infinitesimal, and, as I have repeat- edly urged, the best rule a preserver of game can lay down, in the matter of what gamekeepers call " winged vermin," is to forbid the destruction of any birds except the Sparrow-Hawk and the members of the Crow tribe. The claims of the birds of prey to protection will gain nothing by over-statement, but I am convinced that the more we study their habits AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 23 and make the most of our opportunities of observing them, the more we shall learn to believe that we can- not improve upon the " balance of power," if I may may be allowed the expression, laid down by Nature, and the advantages to be gained by this sort of study are too many and too obvious to the most ordinary intelligence to need further exposition by me. 7. KESTREL Falco tinnunculus. The Kestrel is by far our most common species of diurnal birds of prey, and is so well known that it is unlikely that I shall be able to add anything new to the abundant records as to its habits and life-history. In this neighbourhood hardly a day passes during the spring and summer months that one or more of this species may not be observed hovering in the air over our fields and meadows, and occasionally darting down to the ground upon a' mouse, grasshopper, or other such " small deer." The food, indeed, of the Kestrel is very varied, and to my knowledge it will take moles, mice, small birds, frogs, lizards, grass- hoppers, beetles of many species, on wing and on the ground, and earthworms. I once, and once only, saw a Kestrel pursue any bird larger than a Sparrow or Greenfinch, viz. a Missel-Thrush ; but though the Hawk in this instance seemed to " mean business," the Thrush held her very cheap, and sat chattering in a tree about which the Kestrel made many, appa- rently vicious, stoops. I think that in this county the Kestrel is generally known as Sparrow-Hawk and the Sparrow-Hawk as Blue Hawk, but I have also 24 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 25 heard the old and very legitimate name of Windhover applied to the former. With us the Kestrel generally selects an old nest of the Carrion-Crow, or Magpie, in a tall elm, or, if available, a Scotch fir tree, in which to lay, though she sometimes builds a nest for her- self, and sometimes, but in my experience rarely, chooses a hollow tree for her establishment. The eggs are generally four or five (I have known of six in a nest), of a mottled red-brown, but vary greatly in colour and in size. The young birds can generally fly before the end of May ; and as I do my utmost to prevent their destruction, I am often, when at home in the summer months, gratified with the sight of four or five of these pretty and useful birds on wing together. I cannot altogether acquit the Kestrel of an occasional bit of poaching ; a small Partridge or Pheasant astray in the grass is no doubt too tempting a morsel to be resisted, but any petty larceny of this sort may well be condoned on account of the great number of field-mice and voles destroyed by these birds. The Kestrel is very easily tamed, and may be kept at liberty when once reclaimed, as it will, in common with most birds of prey, come regularly to call or whistle if fed at the same place and time every day, but it is of no use for falconry, as its natural mode of obtaining its prey, as I have already said, is by taking it from the ground, except in the case of certain winged insects which do not enter into the falconer's list of legitimate " quarry." I am inclined here to enter my protest against a fashion which is only too prevalent of shooting birds for the purpose of making their skins into hand-screens. I have seen portions of Kestrels, Owls, and many other birds (though few so useful as those just named), stuck 26 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE upon handles with the head, legs, and feet in impos- sible positions between the wings, and with staring glass eyes, almost always of the wrong colour, doing outrage to ornithological decency and all the best feelings of those who love birds. Plenty of birds are destroyed for our daily use, in the way of game, poultry, and wild-fowl, to furnish screens for all who require them, without thinning the ranks of such birds as I have mentioned. Fragments of Pheasants, Part- ridges, Wild Ducks, Bantams, Guinea-fowls, &c., will keep off the heat of the fire as well as others, and not entail unnecessary destruction. A very large proportion of our Kestrels generally leave us on the approach of winter; in fact we seldom see one of this species in this neighbourhood between the beginning of December and March, but their movements of course depend upon the weather, and I recollect one very mild winter in which I did not perceive any diminution of their numbers till a sharp and prolonged frost, with some snow, in the early part of March, sent them off to some milder climate for several weeks. 8. SPARROW-HAWK. Accipiter nisus. The Hawk is very common in all our district, and in spite of the incessant war of extermination carried on against it, and with good cause, by preservers of game, I fancy that it is more common in our imme- diate neighbourhood now than it was some twenty or thirty years ago. I, personally, should be sorry to exterminate this or any other bird, but in a semi- AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 27 preserved district such as ours, with large extents of woodland, dense coppices, and abundance of small birds, no amount of shooting will extinguish this freebooter, and I confess that I show him but little mercy. The Sparrow-Hawk is a very bold and a very ravenous bird, but seldom aifords one much insight into his proceedings. A warning note or two from a Sparrow or Finch, the plunge of a small dark body into a fence, a shriek of terror or agony, and all is over. Nor are the small birds just mentioned by any means the only victims ; when a pair of Sparrow- Hawks have young, and discover a brood of young Pheasants, Chickens, or Partridges, they will take one or more of these every day till there are no more to take, and I have seen a nest containing three young well fed Hawks crowded with the putrefying bodies of various birds which had not been touched as food, the old Hawks apparently only indulging in this extravagant slaughter to keep themselves in practice. The great difference of size between the sexes of this species has led to much confusion amongst game- keepers and others, and to the bestowing of many different names upon them, but one very simple distinction from all our other small Hawks may be mentioned for the benefit of the unlearned in birds, viz. that the Sparrow-Hawk has at all ages and in all seasons a yellow iris or circle round the pupil, whilst in the Hobby, Kestrel, and Merlin it is dark brown. As I have before mentioned, the Sparrow- Hawk is a very bold bird, and has often been known to dash into a room, sometimes through a window- pane, at a caged bird. I have had my face sharply brushed by the wing of one of these Hawks, intent 28 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE upon some young Partridges, and have several times known one of them to dart through the wire netting at the top of a Pheasant-pen, without injury to itself, though 1 found it impossible subsequently to pass the dead body of the Hawk through the meshes of the said wire. A good many Wood-Pigeons fall victims to the Sparrow-Hawk in the autumn and winter, when they are feeding on acorns and beech-mast in our woods. The Hawk sits motionless and well con- cealed in a tree till a favourable chance offers itself, when it dashes down, and seizing the Pigeon by the head and neck, soon puts an end to its struggles, in spite of the very superior strength of the captured bird. I have had but very little experience of this Hawk in a trained state, but in some instances have heard of it as very useful. The female will take Par- tridges, and both sexes will capture Quails, Land- Rails, Blackbirds, Thrushes, and smaller birds, but they are uncertain tempered, and somewhat difficult to manage, and with some few exceptions falconers do not care much about them. The system of training and flying these short- winged Hawks, viz. Sparrow- Hawk and Goshawk (Astur paluinbarius], is entirely different from that pursued with the Falcons, as the former are not hooded, and will not wait on in the air, but are flown from the fist, but I have perhaps already digressed too much from ornithology to falconry, and must return to my subject. The Sparrow-Hawk generally, 1 think, builds a nest for itself, usually well concealed and at no great height ; the eggs are from four to six, of a bluish white, more or less streaked, spotted, and blotched with a deep red-brown, but are subject to infinite variation in colour. I have twice met with perfectly unspotted AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 29 eggs in a Sparrow-Hawk's nest, and often with specimens in which the brown markings are almost confined to a broad zone near the thick end of the egg. There is often a difference of from o to 4 inches in length between the female and male of this species, the male, according to Yarrell, averaging above 12 inches, and the female about three more, but I once shot a female which measured over 16 inches, and, though I have kept no record, am very certain that I Sparrow-Hawk with. Thrush.. have often handled male birds which would not reach 1 1 inches. I have more than once known of instances of this Hawk being taken in traps baited with a hen's egg for Carrion-Crows or Magpies. In this neigh- bourhood we generally have an arrival of migratory Sparrow-Hawks about the end of harvest, but it is difficult to say whether they are bond fide travellers or only natives, who take to the open fields from 30 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE some of the large unpreserved woodlands in our vicinity ; be that as it may, the greater number of those that we kill at that season are not birds of the year, and as winter approaches make themselves scarce. This Hawk in captivity is very subject to cramp, and will not bear much exposure to the weather. The females will kill and devour the males if left together, and they have the unpleasant pecu- liarity of being one day perfectly tame and sitting quietly on the fist, and the next, perhaps, struggling and dashing themselves nearly to death on the approach of their master, who has carried them for hours, and from whose hand they have constantly been fed. 9. KITE. Milvus vulgaris. Of this fine bird and its habits in this county, or indeed I may say in this country, I am sorry to say that, from personal observation, I have next to nothing to relate, for the obvious reason that the species has been all but extinct in our district for nearly fifty years, and is now a rare bird in all parts of Great Britain. My own acquaintance Avith the Kite in Northamptonshire is soon told. I can just remember, during a very severe frost with snow upon the ground, being taken out in front of the house to look at three Kites sailing at no great height over the lawn ; this must have been in the winter of 1837-38. On another occasion I saw a Kite close to Milton, Peterborough, perhaps some four or five years later than the above instance ; and AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 31 in 1843 I well recollect one of our gamekeepers bringing in a fine Kite which he had shot from his cottage door near Aldwincle. In the last-named and following years Kites' nests were taken in Lady Wood and Great Wadenhoe Wood; in the latter instance by the late Mr. Norwood, of Salisbury, who gave me this information, and in 1840 or 1841 two young Kites were taken from a nest in a very large Soaring Kite. elm near Barnwell village, and kept for many years in the rectory garden by the late Rev. J. Boultbee, in whose possession I well remember seeing them, and to whose daughter I am indebted for the above particulars ; these birds made a nest in the garden just named, and laid two eggs, one of which was given to me by Mr, Boultbee. 32 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE I have numerous records of the former abundance of the Kite in this division of our county, and espe- cially in the great woods of Huntingdonshire Monk's Wood, Holme Wood, and Alconbury Hill. One of my correspondents seems to think that the drainage of the fens and of Whittlesea Mere has something to do with the disappearance of the Kite, but I cannot agree in this view, as the bird was already exceedingly rare at the time of the drainage of the mere, nor are meres or swampy ground espe- cially attractive to it. I have also heard it stated that the Kites were exterminated by a very severe winter, and this I think is more likely, for although most of the records sent in to me are somewhat vague as to date, from what I can gather our Kites seem to have disappeared suddenly, and not gradually diminished in numbers as though shot and trapped off by gamekeepers. However this may be, it seems that till about 1844 or 1845 the Kite was common, and bred in many localities besides those above mentioned, e. g., Thistlemore near Milton, Kockingham Forest, Oundle Wood, the neighbourhood of Uppingham, and probably many other large woods. The latest record I have of the appearance of a Kite in these parts is from Mr. G. Edmonds, of Oundle, wiio informs me that in November 1868 one of these birds suddenly rose from a ditch within a yard of him, where it was regaling upon a dovecot Pigeon ; this occurred in St. Osyth's Lane, within a very short distance of Oundle. I presume that in England the Kite was a per- manent resident, but I can find no positive informa- tion upon this point ; at all events it nested regularly with us, and I recollect its presence, as before stated, AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 66 on one occasion in the depth of winter. I have in my collection a fine specimen of this bird presented to me by the Eev. W. Finch Hatton, rector of Weldon, near which village it was shot from its nest many years ago by the late John Milley, gamekeeper to Lord Winchilsea ; there are also Northamptonshire Kites (stuffed) at Burghley House, and at Bui wick Park. It seems that this species lingered in the county of Lincoln for many years after it had become extinct, or very nearly so, with us. I myself saw three Kites rise together from a railway embankment near Lincoln, in September 1850, and I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. John Cordeaux for the infor- mation that some Kite's eggs were taken from a nest in Bullingdon Wood, near Wragby, in the last-named county, as lately as 1870, and, though I have not the reference at hand, I think that Mr. Cordeaux has since that time recorded the appearance of one or two Kites in his neighbourhood, viz. North Lincolnshire. I have occasionally seen this species in Scotland, where, however, it is now exceedingly rare, and in Wales, where it still breeds, and whence I have received young birds alive. In many parts of the continent of Europe the Kite is still common, especially in Spain, where, though not perhaps so abundant as the Black Kite (Mihus mi grans) in the central and southern districts, it is constantly to be seen circling alone or in pairs about the villages, on the look-out for chickens, refuse, cr materials for its nest, which is often built of some- what curious materials. The late John Hancock, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, informed me that a nest in his collection, taken many years ago in Rockingham Forest, " was composed externally of sticks, from \ D 34 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE inch to 1 inch in diameter ; the lining was a bit of a saddle-girth, a bit of red worsted binding, a harvest- glove, and sundry pieces of paper and linen." A Spaniard who accompanied me in my bird-collecting rambles in Central Spain, in 1865, assured me that he had once taken a purse containing nine dollars from a Kite's nest, and I first learned the news of the murder of President A. Lincoln from a scrap of a Spanish newspaper found in a nest of this bird near Aranjuez. The Kite was a very favourite object of pursuit in the palmy days of falconry, and, from its great powers of wing and habit of mounting high in air, afforded magnificent sport; the Falcons used appear to have been one or other of the northern species, Falco candicans, F. islandus, or F. gyrfalco, and the Saker, F. sacer. The flight of the Kite is easy and graceful ; in common with some other birds of prey, this bird will soar in circles, sometimes for hours, with hardly a perceptible motion of the wings, but with an occa- sional shift of the forked tail. It is a bird of no great courage, and is often driven off by Ravens and even by Magpies. Its cry is a wild plaintive squeal, which, though not very musical, has a certain fitness with the rugged scenery of hill and wood amongst which the bird is so frequently seen. The nest of the Kite is generally built in a high tree (in Spain the stone-pine is a favourite nesting-site), and lined with a very mixed mass of materials, wool, rags, dry grass in fact almost anything portable that the birds can find in their favourite for aging-grounds, the outskirts of towns and villages ; I do not, how- ever, recollect to have ever seen feathers used as a lining for the nest. The eggs are generally three, AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 35 often only two, of a dirty white, spotted and streaked with reddish brown. I imagine that the Kite must always have been a far greater enemy to the poultry- keeper than to the game-preserver from the habit above mentioned. Nature, I think, evidently intended the Kite as a scavenger, and in the southern countries of Europe the services of this and other species of birds in that way are by no means unimportant, as they are the only inspectors of nuisances, and have a strong, though not a pecuniary, interest in their removal. Literally nothing that any bird will eat comes amiss to the Kite ; and from my acquaintance with him in captivity, I am inclined to think that he prefers his food somewhat high. I have seen a Kite devour rotten cabbage-stalks, scraps of bread, potatoes, fish, flesh, and fowl, fresh, high, and putrid, and com- placently swallow pieces of stiff leather. The Black Kite alluded to above is common in Spain and many other parts of the continent, but has hitherto only been met with once in this country, viz., at Alnwick, Northumberland, in May 1866. 10. COMMON BUZZARD. Buteo vulgaris. The Buzzard has in this county shared the fate of the Kite, and is now a rare bird with us, though still to be found in various parts of England, Wales, and: Scotland, especially on the north and south coasts of Devonshire, where it nests, and where I have frequently observed it. I remember 2D 36 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 37 having seen a Buzzard or two occasionally in this immediate neighbourhood ; the last, I feel pretty certain, was in the summer of 1846, but I have been assured by very many persons, older than myself, that some sixty or seventy years ago it was as common as the Kite, and bred regularly in our large woods. Old John Milley, above mentioned as having shot the Kite near Weldon, declared that he had shot " scores of Buzzards of two kinds." The Rev. M. Berkeley kindly informs me that he remembers the Common Buzzard as breeding commonly in Oundle Wood, and I was informed by an old gamekeeper, formerly in the service of Mr. Watts Russell, of Biggin, that he used to kill two species of Buzzard, not uncommonly, in that neighbourhood about 1823-24. To this other species I shall make refer- ence further on. Another old gamekeeper, who had been in the employ of my grandfather, my father, and myself, and died some years ago at the supposed age of 93, often told me that in his early days Marten Cats, Kites, and two sorts of Buzzards were very common, and that he " counted the Brown Buzzard as very bad for young game and rabbits, far worse nor the Kites." The Buzzard, though often to be seen in the pairing-season soaring in the air, is a somewhat sluggish bird, and sits in a tree on the look-out for its prey young rabbits, mice, rats, moles, and young or wounded birds ; I do not know that it will feed on carrion. The nests of this species which I have seen in this country have all been in cliffs, and most of them in spots very difficult of access, but in Spain, where the bird is pretty common, I have found the nests 38 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE generally situated at the first large branch of a tall fir tree, but I think the old nest of some other species is often occupied by this species. The eggs, two or three in number, are of a dirty white, sparingly marked with spots of light reddish brown, and are somewhat smaller and rounder than those of the Kite. The Buzzard has a plaintive wailing cry, to which it gives frequent utterance at all times of the year. There are certain parts of England in which this species appears as an irregular bird of passage, not remaining long ; but all birds, and very notably the birds of prey, are so much influenced by local causes, weather, abundance or scarcity of food &c., that it is difficult in many instances to assign positively the epithets migratory or sedentary. The only com- paratively recent occurrence of the Buzzard in North- amptonshire, of which I have record, was in January 1866, when one, which had been seen several times previously, was killed in Blatherwycke Park, near King's Cliffe, as I am informed by Mr. A. G. Elliot, of Stamford. Since the above article appeared in the ' Journal of the Norths. Nat. History Society,' a few more instances of the occurrence of the present species in our county have come to my knowledge ; as I have already recorded most of these in the pages of the ' Zoologist,' I do not go into details here. A Buzzard was shot in Geddington Chase in May 1882, and sent to me stuffed in 1887. About the middle of November 1883 a Buzzard was heard by me, and subsequently seen and clearly identified by several persons in the neighbourhood of Wadenhoe and Lilford. In the AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 39 first week of September 1888 a Buzzard haunted the park and pleasure-grounds at Lilford for several days. A Buzzard, that had been haunting our woodlands for some weeks previously, was killed by one of Lady Cardigan's gamekeepers about the end of December 1888, and allowed to rot. The Rev. Henry H. Slater, of Irchester Vicarage, informed me that he saw a passage of four Buzzards together, in that neighbour- hood, on September 26, 1892. 11. ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD. Buteo lagopus. This is a species with which I have very little personal acquaintance, except in captivity, having only occasionally seen one on the wing in the open country of West Norfolk and Suffolk during the winter months, and never having visited its breeding- haunts in the north of Europe. In England the Rough-legged Buzzard occurs usually as an autumnal or winter visitor, and on our north-eastern and eastern coasts can hardly be considered rare. In this county I know of three instances of the occurrence of this bird ; but have little doubt that it has been met with frequently, and not recorded. Mr. George Bannerman, writing in * The Field ' of February 12th 1876, mentions the death of one of these birds near Brackley in the previous December. I have recorded the capture of another at Thrapston, in November 1875, in the same newspaper of February 19th, 1876, and a large bird of prey, which (as I was laid up at 40 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE the time of its visit) I did not myself see, was con- stantly seen and watched in the immediate neigh- bourhood of this house, in the months of December 1876 and January and February 1877, by various trustworthy persons, from whose detailed accounts I have no doubt of its having been one of the present species. I would not allow it to be shot at or molested in any way, and it appears to have become very fearless and permitted a near approach ; it was constantly persecuted by Rooks and Crows, of which it took little notice, but finally disappeared about the middle of February. The Rough-legged Buzzard may be easily distinguished from the common species, when seen from below, by its larger size and generally by the greater amount of white on the lower parts. There are authentic instances on record of the breeding of this species in England ; but these are exceptional ; the true home of the bird is in Northern Europe and Asia, where it is reported to prey upon small mammalia and water-fowl, and to nest generally in trees, but occasionally in cliffs. Several Rough- legged Buzzards, which I have kept in confinement, seemed quiet, sluggish birds, by no means wild, and lived peaceably with various other birds of prey. I never heard them utter any cry. For other supposed occurrences of this species in Northamptonshire without capture or positive identi- fication, of. my communications to * Zoologist,' dated November 20, 1885, January 20, 1891, and December 12,1891. AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 41 12. HONEY-BUZZARD. Per tils apivorus. I feel no doubt that this is the second species of Buzzard mentioned by the ancient gamekeepers, as I have stated, as formerly common and breeding in the woods of our northern division. The Kite was, of course, well known to them, and from its colour and forked tail there could be no mistake ; the Rough- legged Buzzard is an autumnal visitor, and when it does visit us almost always keeps to the most open country it can find, whilst the present species is a regular summer migrant to most parts of Europe, and has bred, to my knowledge, in this county, as I have a specimen kindly presented by the Rev. W. Finch Hatton, which was shot, with another, from a nest containing four eggs in Core Thick, near Weldon, in the summer of 1843 or 184 L I saw another of these birds stuffed at Wansford, which was shot in that neighbourhood many years ago ; and there, is, or was, another in the possession of Mr. T. Sharman, of Benefield Grange, which was shot in that neighbour- hood in 1862. I have never seen this bird alive in this country, except in captivity, but in some parts of the continent it may be called abundant as a summer visitor, and I once witnessed the passage of many hundreds over the Straits of Gibraltar, on their travels southwards, in the month of September 1856. We were becalmed off Europa Point, and from about micMay till dusk these birds kept passing in small flocks of from five or six to eighty at intervals of a few minutes, at no very great height, though generally out of gunshot. 42 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE This passage occurs regularly twice a year, in May and September, but it is a curious fact that we never; to my knowledge, saw a Honey-Buzzard in any part of Andalucia or Central Spain, though we found it nesting in the mountain-forests of the province of Santander in May 1876. The food of the Honey- Buzzard appears to consist chiefly, if not exclusively, of the grubs of wasps and bees, which it scrapes out of the ground. It is a perfectly harmless, in fact a useful bird, not by any means naturally shy or wild, and, no doubt, would be a common summer visitor to our woods if, in common with so many other species, it were not shot down immediately it makes its appearance in our country. It is incapable of doing injury to game, and the only reason for killing it is the fact of its being a rare bird, the very reason that ought to operate in the contrary direction. The Honey-Buzzard, so far as my own observation of its habits extends, seldom remains long on the wing, but loves to sit and take the sun upon a dead bough of some lofty tree, evincing a very decided preference for the beech, and, when disturbed, merely flies a short distance, to take up a similar position. The food of this species, of course, compels it to be often on the ground, upon which I have seen it run with ease and some speed in a manner quite different to the terrestrial progression of any other European bird of prey. In the few instances in which I have known of the nest, it has been placed in a beech, on a large bough close to the trunk of the tree, at some thirty feet from the ground, built of strong sticks externally, with small beech-twigs internally, and a lining of fresh green beech-leaves. The eggs are generally three, of a roundish oval, and are often AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 43 almost entirely clouded with various shades of dark red-brown on a dirty-white ground ; some have less colour, but almost all that I have seen are very much more coloured than any eggs of the Common Buzzard or Kite. The late Mr. E. C. Newcome told me the story which I see quoted, on his authority, in the fourth edition of Yarrell's ' British Birds, 5 about the Honey- Buzzard building a sort of leafy wall round its nest with fresh boughs. I have not myself seen this, but have no doubt whatever of the perfect accuracy of my informant, who was an excellent observer, and par- ticularly well acquainted with raptorial birds, being quite the first practical falconer of his day. It is difficult to imagine the use of this wall, except perhaps for shade ; but in the case of the nests met with by us, there was no need of a screen from the sun, as they were in deep shade at all hours of the day. On March 26, 1891, I received the following reply to my inquiry concerning an occurrence of a Honey- Buzzard near Syresham many years previously, re- ported to me by Mr. W. Tomalin : " Salcey Forest, March 25. I beg to say, in answer to your letter, that the Honey-Buzzard was pulled out by me in the Crown Woods near Silverstone, in this county, in September 1861. On seeing the wasps unusually busy one morning about 8 o'clock, I went near the nest to ascertain the cause. The whole of the combs were scratched out, and there was a hole nearly the size of a bee-hive, On seeing the tail of a bird, I put my arm in and drew out what proved to be a very fine specimen of the Honey-Buzzard. I sent the bird to a man named Dickins for preservation, but, having 44 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE been badly stuffed, after about ten years it crumbled to pieces. THOS. GULLIVEK, Crown Woodman" A male of this species was shot at Milton, near Peterborough, in the summer of 1890, stuffed by John Evans of Bourne, and is now preserved in the Peter- borough Museum. 13. MARSH-HARRIER. Circus cerug'mosus. This bird, formerly so abundant in the fens and marshy districts of England, where it was generally known as the Moor-Buzzard, I have only once met with in Northamptonshire, and much regret that I have no record of the exact date. It was, however, in a winter between 1860-65 ; I was looking for wild fowl and Snipes along a brook between Aldwincle and Thrapston, and had just fired both barrels at some Snipes, when a fine Marsh-Harrier, with the dark plumage and yellow head of immaturity, rose within some thirty yards of me from the brook-side, and sailed away to the northward. I never even heard of another in our neighbourhood, which is remarkable, as before the draining of Whittlesea Mere and the adjoining fens the bird was exceedingly common thereabouts ; our river- valley is near that district, and, one would suppose, presents sufficient attractions to a marsh-loving bird to induce it to extend its travels occasionally in our direction. This is one of the most widely distributed of our European birds of prey, and, from my own observa- tion, I should be inclined to say one of the most AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 45 abundant in all localities suited to its habits. It has been driven away from its old haunts in England by the draining and cultivation of the fen-lands, and ruthless persecution, but I have met with it in Cam- bridgeshire and East Norfolk, in Merioneth, Cardigan, and Caermarthenshire, in various parts of Ireland, in France, Spain. Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily, Algeria, Tunis, Greece, European Turkey, Crete, and Cyprus. The Marsh-Harrier is a slow-flying bird, and appears to be constantly on the search for food. We often noticed twenty or more of this species on the wing together about the reedy marshes of Albania, where a wounded Snipe had very little chance of escape from them. I never saw a Marsh-Harrier attack any unwounded bird, but they do, no doubt, occasionally take young Water-fowl, and are great devourers of eggs. All the Harriers seem to have regular beats, which they quarter over at no great height several times each day, and are continually picking up some- thing : the stomachs of two which I examined con- tained the remains of frogs, a half-digested snake, a vole, and some snail-shells. The nest is generally on or close to the ground, sometimes on a low bush amongst the reeds, and is built of sticks, pieces of reed, dry flags, and sedge ; the eggs are three or four, rarely five, of a greenish white, occasionally faintly spotted with rust-colour. The female, whilst sitting, is fed by the male bird, who hovers over the nest and drops the prey to his mate. The conspicuous light-coloured head of the immature birds of this species has gained them the name of Bald Buzzard ; but that name has also certainly been applied to the Osprey. 46 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 14. HEN-HARRIER. Circus cyaneus. This is another of the many species which has been " improved " out of the country by the drainage of fen-lands, and perhaps still more by the enclosure and cultivation of the great stretches of furze and sedge- covered commons in which it delighted. I am not acquainted with a single instance of the death or capture of a bird of this species in Northamptonshire, but few autumns pass without my seeing at least one in this neighbourhood, and it is somewhat remarkable that, of perhaps twenty that I have observed here- abouts, I can only call to mind two which were not in the ash-grey plumage of the adult male. I have several times heard from the gamekeepers of their having seen a " Sea-Gull-coloured Hawk," and the Hen-Harrier certainly nested in my boyhood on some rough sedgy fields in the neighbourhood of Clapton. In the aforesaid grey plumage, and beating backwards and forwards over an open field, as is its habit, it is a conspicuous bird, and not likely to escape notice, but with the exception of the vague gamekeeper's account above mentioned, a note from Lady Mary Thompson of the former occurrence of the species near Milton, and an instance of its having been seen by Mr. G. Edmonds near Oundle about thirteen years ago, 1 have no local information on record concerning it. I have met with the Hen-Harrier in Devonshire, Norfolk, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and various foreign countries, but nowhere in such abundance as in Northern Spain, in the neighbourhood of Santander, a country of open, undulating, rushy and furze-grown AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 47 pastures, with occasional marshes, in every way admi- rably suited to its habits. Though I believe the principal food of this species to consist of reptiles and mice, for the capture of which it is, by its owl-like flight, admirably adapted, it is also most destructive to the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds, the Lapwing or Peewit being a frequent suiferer. The Harrier also frequently surprises full-grown birds on the ground by its stealthy and noiseless approach, with which it would stand no chance in a trial of speed on wing. My companion in the north of Spain shot a fine adult bird of this species from the remains of a full-grown Turtle-Dove, which it certainly could not have caught in fair flight. In various parts of our islands the Hen-Harrier is known by various names ; in Devonshire it is Vuzkit, i. e. Furze-Kite ; in Scotland I have heard it called Blue Glead ; in Ireland Goshawk, no doubt properly Gorse- Hawk ; whilst the female seems to be generally known as Ringtail. The nests of this bird which have come under my notice were composed of a mass of dry sedge very loosely put together on a bare spot amongst furze and heath; once on a ledge on the bare stony bank of a Highland burn. The eggs are generally four (I have heard of six), of a bluish white, sometimes faintly freckled with small rust-coloured spots. I have never succeeded in keeping this species in captivity for any length of time, and have found those which I have so kept wild and sulky. Since the above article appeared in our Nat. Hist. Journal, I have become possessed of an adult female of this species, killed by a gamekeeper near Colly- weston, about the middle of November 1890. 48 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 15. MONTAGU'S HARRIER. Circus cineraceus. The only specimen of this Harrier that I ever heard of in Northamptonshire was shot in a piece of standing barley -near Thorpe Waterville, on August 31, 1894 ; trieJbut, who must have shot it at very close quarters, could not find it, but it was found alive, with both wings broken, by a man who was mowing the barley with a machine ; he picked it up, dashed it against the machine, and threw it away, but fortunately told his employer of the occurrence. The latter, who is a tenant of ours, went to look for it, found it, collected all the feathers that he could find, killed it (for the unhappy bird was still alive), and sent it to me, thereby making a valuable addition to my list of county birds. Montagu's Harrier is a summer migrant to our Islands, and- occasionally nests in various parts of England, though it is seldom allowed to rear its young in peace. In all its habits it closely resembles the Hen-Harrier, but is a smaller and more slenderly- made bird. ..From what I read in the ' Zoologist,' the 4 Field, 1 and other publications, as well as from private correspondence, 1 am disposed to consider this species as by far the most common of the three British Harriers in England at the present time. It was first distinguished from the Hen-Harrier by Colonel Montagu in 1802, but has probably often been mis- taken for that species by subsequent writers, although it is very distinguishable, when on wing, by the darker grey mantle of the old males, and the smaller size, greater proportionate length of wings, more AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 49 buoyant flight, and generally more red-brown colour of the females and immature birds. In hand, Mr. Howard Saunders has indicated a certain means of distinguishing this bird from the Hen-Harrier, by informing us that in the present species the outer web of the fifth primary has no notch or emargina- tion, as it has in the case of the former bird. I may add that in every instance in my own experience, since I have been possessed of this information, I have found it to be fully verified. In the south of Spain Montagu's Harrier is exceed- ingly common during the summer months, and nests, often in small colonies, in the great marshes, as also occasionally in growing corn. Black, or very dark brown, varieties of this bird are by no means uncom- mon ; of this variety I have at this time of writing a fine specimen alive, received with two of the ordinary type of colour from a nest in central France. These Harriers, in my experience, certainly support captivity better than the Hen-Harrier, but require ample room to exercise their wings, as they are very restless and wild. The bird referred to at the commencement of this article is certainly a young one of the year. 16. TAWNY OWL Syrnium aluco. This bird, commonly known in this county as the Brown Owl or Wood-Owl, is still, I am glad to say, pretty frequent with us, in spite of the unceasing persecution it encounters from gamekeepers. I can- not, indeed, entirely acquit the Brown Owl of an occasional bit of poaching, but I am convinced that E 50 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE such occurrences are exceptional, and, in defence of a very favourite bird, may refer my readers to the result of an examination of 210 pellets, composed of the indigestible portions of food thrown up by birds of this species, quoted in Yarrell's ' British Birds,' 4th ed. p. 148. I have also myself examined many pellets of the Tawny Owl, and, as far as game, strictly speaking, is concerned, with a similar result, though I have more than once detected the remains of young rabbits. This Owl is probably pretty well known to those of my readers who live in the country. It loves old hollow trees and masses of ivy, but does not, so far as I know, frequent old buildings, barns, churches, c., as the Barn or White Owl so often does. With us at Lilford I have often remarked that the Tawny Owls become very noisy in the first frosty nights in September and October, and continue their nightly concerts with little intermission till the nesting- season. I have seldom heard their well-known " W T boo hoo " during the summer months except in the daytime, though the cry of the young birds is constantly to be heard after they leave the nest and begin to perch amongst the neighbouring branches. This Owl is an early breeder ; I have twice met with nests containing hard-set eggs in the last week of March, and several times seen strong-flying young Tawny Owls in April. I have no positive proof that this species breeds more than once in the same season, but I have had unfledged young birds brought to me at various times in May, June, July, and August, when some broods, at all events, had left the nests. With us this species generally chooses a hollow oak, elm, or ash for its establishment, and will use the AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 51 same site year after year, although, often robbed and disturbed, but I have also several times met with eggs and young birds of this Owl in old Crows' and Squirrels' nests, and am acquainted with more than one instance of nests in rabbit-burrows and on the bare ground. The Tawny Owl is a very powerful bird for its size, and no doubt well capable of taking well-grown leverets and rabbits, but my own experience, as I have already stated, convinces me that such captures are exceptional, and that the food of these Owls con- sists for the most part of voles, rats, mice, with an occasional small bird, and a good many small fishes. I think the number of eggs is generally three, often four ; I never met with' or heard of more than the latter number. The young birds are easy to rear, become very tame, and, from their solemnity of ex- pression and the grotesque attitudes which they assume, are amongst the most satisfactory inmates of an aviary. 17. LONG-EARED OWL. Asio otus. In our immediate neighbourhood this species, though well known as the Horned Owl, cannot be considered by any means common ; in fact I cannot call to mind having met with it on more than three occasions, but I am informed by Mr. A. G. Elliot, of Stamford, in a letter dated February 29, 1876, that he had received " a great many from all parts," so that we may presume that it is not uncommon in that neigh- bourhood. I have been informed of several occurrences T? 9 i. - 52 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE of this bird in various parts of Northamptonshire on good authority, and I was assured by one of Lord Westmorland's gamekeepers, in August 1872, that he had taken four young Long-eared Owls from a nest in a blackthorn thicket near Morehay Lawn during the summer of the previous year. This man was evidently well acquainted with the species, of Long-eared Owl mobbed by Tits. which he gave a very accurate description. Since the above paragraph appeared in print our decoy man brought me a bird of this species alive that he found hanging, caught by the feet in the net over one of the "pipes," on October 20, 1891 ; I set this Owl at liberty, having in previous years liberated several nestlings sent to me from Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 53 and Hants, as soon as they could fly and provide for themselves. On April 25 a nest of Long-eared Owl containing five eggs was found in one of our planta- tions at Lilford, but one of these eggs was cracked, as I believe, by a Squirrel, and the nest was evidently deserted when first discovered. Although both the parent birds remained in the immediate neighbour- hood for a considerable time, I could not hear of their attempting to breed again. In many parts of England, especially those in which there are large extents of fir-woods, this Owl is very abundant, and, according to Yarrell and other authors, its numbers are increased in the eastern counties by an autumnal migration. We have more than once, when shooting in West Norfolk and Suffolk, come upon a party of ten or more of these Owls collected in an old Scotch fir or scattered in a young plantation of spruce or larch ; they disperse on being disturbed, and, if marked into a thick tree, may be very closely approached and watched. I would never lift my gun at an Owl of any species in this country, but I am sorry to say that on occasions such as I have just mentioned my companions have seldom been of my way of thinking, and many of these useful and beau- tiful birds have fallen victims without any reason whatever. From my own observation I am inclined to think that the Long-eared Owl prefers small birds to quadrupeds as food, though it no doubt destroys many field-mice and voles. In the absence of fir- woods this Owl will take up its abode in thick masses of evergreen shrubs ; and in the island of Corfu, where it is not uncommon, is generally met with in the thickest coverts of arbutus and myrtle. With a 54 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE few exceptions, the nests of this species which I have seen were apparently superstructures on a foundation of old nests of the Wood-Pigeon, and in one instance certainly of the Jay; but I believe that it has a special predilection for Magpies' and Squirrels' nests. ] do not know that hollow trees are ever used by the Long-eared Owl for nesting purposes, or, indeed, as an abode at any time. In common with most of the family, this Owl is an early breeder ; I have found the eggs in the north of Ireland in the first week of March ; the usual num- ber is, I think, four. The young birds remain a long time in and about the nest, and keep up an incessant plaintive and monotonous cry. The pairing-cry of the old birds is a prolonged and most disagreeable scream, but is very seldom heard, and certainly never to be forgotten. This species thrives fairly well in confinement. 18. SHORT-EARED OWL. Aslo accipitrinus. With us this Owl is an irregular autumnal visitor, generally putting in an appearance about the second or third week of October, at which time one or two may often be found on the rough fields near Clapton, known as Wigsthorpe Wolds, which I have before mentioned when treating of the Hen-Harrier. I have also seen it and been informed of its occurrence in many other parts of Northamptonshire and Hunting donshire. The habits of this species differ widely from those of any other British Owl, as it very rarely frequents AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 55 56 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE woods or even plantations of any height, and never haunts old buildings, but must be sought for in open grassy fields, commons, low furze-brakes, sedgy marshes, and is not uncommonly met with among turnips. In the fens the Short-eared Owl is some- times found, at the time of year above mentioned, in flocks of twenty or thirty together, probably just arrived on their southward migration, but in this county I never met with more than two at the same time. I imagine that this bird is less incommoded by the sunlight than any of our other Owls, as when disturbed it sometimes mounts to a considerable height and flies steadily off, without the wavering undecided action of the Tawny and Barn Owls. I have more than once seen this Owl, evidently seeking its prey, in broad daylight, when its mode of opera- tion precisely resembled that of the Harriers, to which family, indeed, in many of its habits it closely approaches. The Short-eared Owl has a very wide geographical distribution, extending, according to Yarrell, pretty nearly all over the continents of Europe and Asia, many parts of Africa, and America from Greenland to the Straits of Magellan. I have myself received a living specimen from Chili, in which I could detect no difference from our typical European species. Of the nesting and breeding-habits of this bird I know absolutely nothing from personal observation, but it formerly nested not uncommonly in the fens of Cambridgeshire, and still does so occasionally on the moors of northern England and Scotland. The nest, according to various authors, is always on the ground, and generally is nothing more than a slight cavity scraped by the birds, without any lining. It appears AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 57 from Sir William Jardine's account, quoted at p. 164, vol. i. YarrelTs ' British Birds ' (4th ed.), that this Owl is a very late breeder, as the young birds are barely able to fly by August 12th. The eggs are from three to five. I have kept a few of these birds' in confinement, but, with one exception, never suc- ceeded in really taming them. The exception was a most delightful bird, which would follow me about, come to whistle, and sit upon arid feed from my hand, but did not live long. The stomachs of several of this species which I have examined contained the indistinguishable remains of small birds and fishes, of which last article of diet all the Owls of my acquaintance are very fond. 19, SCOPS OWL. Scops gin. This is a rare and irregular visitor to our Islands, and I admit it to my list of Northamptonshire birds solely on the following evidence. In a list of birds in the neighbourhood of Stamford, kindly sent to me by Mr. A. G. Elliot, of that town, in February 1876, he states : " One little Owl I saw fresh killed when a boy, quite thirty years ago, by H. Burbidge at the Dog-kennels or Life, close to Duddington ; and it was stuffed by John Taylor, of Barrowden ; I think it was Strix scops, having noticed it for years after- wards, but now lost sight of it." Mr. Elliot came to see me at Lilford a few days after I received his list above mentioned, and on my showing him the skins of various small Owls, immediately selected one of 58 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE the present species, and declared that " this is the bird." I may here mention that I have been positively assured by several friends of the former existence of a very minute " Horned " Owl in Wakerley Wood, a large covert belonging to Lord Exeter, not far from Barrowden. The concurrent testimony of my various informants was to the effect that a few of these little birds were generally to be seen when the wood was shot through, and that they were about the size of a Missel-Thrush. I never could discover that any one had shot one, and the only time that I had the pleasure of shooting in Wakerley Wood I found the gamekeepers ignored the little Owls altogether. The Scops Owl is a regular and, in some parts, a very abundant summer migrant to Southern Europe ; but has occurred in England and Ireland at almost all seasons of the year. The probability of its beirg met with in the covert shooting-season in any one particular spot in this country is but small, but my informants were so positive as to size, and the fact of the birds being " Icrrud" Owls, that I can but tell the story as it was told many times to me. I should at once have considered the bird to be the Little Owl (Athene noctua), also a rare visitor to this country, though it ranges commonly further north- wards on the continent of Europe than the Scops, but the Little Owl is not "lorned" and I must therefore leave my readers to draw their own inferences. I have met with the Scops Owl in great abundance in various parts of Spain and in the Ionian Islands, in which countries it arrives from the south in April, for the most part leaving again in November, though AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 59 a few scattered individuals remain in Andalucia throughout the winter months. In the avenues of the Alamedas, or public walks of Seville, this little Owl is especially common, and in the spring its melancholy call of " Keeyoo " may be heard all night, and often in the daytime, in those places. This species has but little fear of man, and I have several times watched one from a few yards distance, as it sat generally tightly drawn up against a tree-trunk, sometimes with one eye closed and the other slowly winking with an irresistibly comic effect. Though this Owl, in common with almost all others, prefers the shade of thick foliage for its diurnal retreat, yet it seems perfectly indifferent even to the full power of the summer sun of Andalucia, arid flies with a quick and direct undulating flight from tree to tree when disturbed in the daytime. The old olive-groves of Corfu are favourite haunts of this Owl, and in their hollow trunks the nest is often to be found, formed of a very few sticks and grasses, and containing from three to five eggs. In Spain, though the olive is ex- tremely abundant, the Scops appears to prefer hollow elms, poplars, and willows ; the cork-tree is also a favourite resort. I believe that the food of this Owl consists almost entirely of various insects, beetles, and large moths. Be their diet what it may, they are brought into the market of Valetta, Malta, by dozens in April and May at the period of the vernal migration, and find a ready sale as food, being often served up for dinner at the regimental messes under various names, though not, so far as I know, the true one. My own experience is that the flesh is very good. In captivity these little birds become very tame, 60 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE and are most amusing. One which I kept for a long time at Corfu preferred the Humming-bird moth, which abounded there, to any other food I could give him. I think that these Owls devour a greater weight of food for their size than any bird with which I am acquainted. 20. BARN OWL. Strix flammea. This bird, perhaps better known in this country as White or Screech-Owl, is common throughout North- amptonshire, and in this immediate neighbourhood may be called abundant. Few summer evenings pass without two or more of these birds being on view hunting over the meadows close to this house, and many more are to be heard than seen. I think that in most parts of England gamekeepers are beginning to find out that in killing the Barn Owl they are murdering a most efficient ally in the destruction of the worst, because the most numerous, enemies to game in this country, i. e. the Brown Rat, to say nothing of those little pests, the various species of mice and voles. The present species, as is probably well known to my readers, selects a hollow tree, a hole or crevice in old buildings, or a dense dark fir tree as its usual resort, where, during the daytime, it remains appa- rently fast asleep till dusk, when it sallies forth in quest of food. I have several times climbed up to various holes in old trees in this neighbourhood just to see if my friends were at home, and often watched them for some time without disturbing, or apparently AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 61 62 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE even waking them, but occasionally have been detected, when the Owls (for there were often more than one) have made no attempt at flight, but merely attenuating themselves to their narrowest dimensions, swayed their bodies slowly to and fro, with many loud snaps of drowsy defiance. Many years ago I was staying at the rectory at Tichmarsh ; a pair of Barn Owls had a nest full of young in the celebrated cedar in the rectory garden, and one fine evening the old birds came bringing food to their young seventeen times in half an hour by the clock; there was a rickyard within thirty yards of the nest, and this was the Owl's special hunting-ground, as I repeatedly observed : mice were comparatively scarce, probably because rats swarmed, and the pellets found under the nest were in this instance composed almost entirely of the remains of the latter vermin. In other cases, besides the above- mentioned animals, I have found many skulls of Sparrows and Finches, which I presume are caught in the ricks, one or two of Bats, and fragments of various fishes. I have often been told by game- keepers that they often saw Barn Owls hovering about their pheasant-coops, but have always answered that if the young pheasants are outside their coops at the time the Owl is flying, the keeper is to blame, and that the Owl's visit is for mice or rats, and not for game ; indeed I do not recollect one authentic case of poaching to have been proved against the Barn Owl hereabouts. I do not know that in Northamptonshire, or at all events in this neighbour- hood, the superstitions formerly so prevalent with regard to Owls in general, and this species in parti- cular, ever had much hold on the people, but, to my AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 63 personal knowledge, in Wales, not very many years ago, the screech of the Barn Owl was considered a certain warning of imminent death, and in another part of England on my asking a gamekeeper why he killed the Owls, he assured me that though he could not say for certain that they killed game, yet they were unlucky and no good to any one. I tried to convince him that their unluckiness was the fact of his destroying them, and that they did immense good to many people, but I feel sure that I only wasted my eloquence upon him, with the result of persuading him that I was a harmless lunatic. One of the most extraordinary accusations which I ever heard brought against the Barn Owl was that of attacking sheep as they lie asleep in the fields, and te aring their ears and faces. In Spain this species and the Scops Owl are accused of drinking the oil from the lamps kept burning in the churches and chapels, and 1 have heard of a similar story with regard to a species of the family in Mexico. The Barn Owl is reported as common in most parts of Europe except the most northern. I have met with it in nearly all the Mediterranean countries which I have visited. The Moors and Jews of Morocco have some peculiar and curious supersti- tions with regard to this bird, for an account of which I must refer any of my readers who may be interested in such subjects to the 'Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar,' by Lieut. -Colonel L. H. Irby. The Barn Owl, I think, makes very little or no nest, but with us it often happens that the hole in a hollow tree, selected by the old birds for rearing their brood, is previously occupied by Jackdaws, which birds, in several instances that have come under my notice, 64 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE have been driven away by the Owls, who take posses- sion of the Daw's nest and commence laying therein without altering its form or substance. I have found now and then an egg or two of the Jackdaw with those of the Owl. This species begins to lay in April, and I firmly believe that the hen bird begins to sit as soon as she has laid her first egg, as I have often seen five or six young Owls in the same nest varying in size and plumage from a fully fledged bird well able to fly, to a little puff of white down, cer- tainly not more than a week old. In a recess in Barnwell Castle, which must, I think, at some time or other, have served as a fireplace, I once found ten Barn Owls huddled up together, apparently of all ages, as they certainly \vere of all sizes, but I do not think that in this gathering there was more than one old bird. I quite agree with Yarrell as to a second and third laying taking place before the first family leaves the nest, and the consequent hatching of the later eggs by the elder birds. In a very fine ancient walnut-tree close to Pilton Kectory, and within a few minutes' walk of this house, a pair or two of Barn Owls have been established for many years ; and as their establishments are generally situated at the ex- treme ends of the cavities in the large branches of the tree, they are almost impossible of access and safe from boys. 1 have known seven species of birds to be rearing their broods at the same time in this tree, viz. Barn Owl, Spotted Flycatcher, Tree-creeper, Starling, Tree-Sparrow, Jackdaw, and Stock-Dove. I have more than once seen a Barn Owl hunting over a meadow in broad daylight, though not in sun- shine, but I think that this species is more dazzled by the sun than any other Owl with which I am AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 65 acquainted, and in our park, where there are many hollow trees frequented by the Owls, I have often remarked that when disturbed in the daytime they blunder into the first shady tree that offers itself, apparently not knowing the way from one haunt to the next. The digestion of all the Owls, and of this species in particular, is marvellously rapid : I have seen a young half-grown Barn Owl take down nine full-grown mice one after another till the tail of the ninth stuck out of his mouth, and in three hours' time the young "gourmand" was crying, or rather snoring, for more food, and would, I have little doubt, have disposed of nine more mice had I had them to give ; he was, at all events, not satisfied with four. There is a prevalent idea that Owls kill but will not eat Shrews ; but I can positively assert the con- trary with regard to this species, at all events when in confinement. It is certainly true that the little animals above named are often to be found dead without any apparent external injury, and the few of those so found by me, which I have examined closely, appeared, to my unskilled eyes, to be equally free from any morbid condition of the vital organs, though generally very thin. I cannot offer any solution of this question, except possibly a failure of some special food, and the physical inability of the'Shrew to adapt itself to a new diet, but this of course is merely theory, and would be very difficult to prove. I have often seen cats bring in Shrews, and after playing with them for some time leave them, and I cannot recollect any instance of a dog eating one, but the Barn Owl and Kestrel certainly will do so, and though I cannot positively recall the particulars, I feel sure F 66 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE that other birds of prey in my possession have not rejected these curious little insectivora. In conclu- sion, I would earnestly beg all or any of my readers who may have it in their power to protect and en- courage the Barn Owl in all ways, and to rest assured that they will find him, though undoubtedly of a retiring disposition, a most quaint, interesting, and valuable friend. His voice is not pleasant, but we cannot expect everything even in an Owl. 21. LITTLE OWL. Athene noctua. I am glad to say that I have, since the preceding notes were published, succeeded in establishing the Little Owl as a resident Northamptonshire bird, and consider that this species is entitled to a separate number and article, as fully as are the Pheasant and Red-legged Partridge. I have for a considerable number of years annually purchased a number of these Owls in the London market, and as the majority are too young to fly when first received, I have had them placed together in large box-cages in quiet places about our grounds at Lilford, and left the doors of the cages open, taking care that an ample supply of food is provided once during the day for the Owls. I regret that I have not kept notes as to when I first adopted this practice, but for several years, beyond the fact that we occasionally saw and frequently heard of one or more of the Little Owls in the neighbourhood, nothing of importance came of the experiment, so far as I am aware, till 1889, when one of our gamekeepers, on April 23, found a Little AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 67 Owl sitting in a hollow bough of an old ash-tree in the deer-park at Lilford ; she would not move, but he lifted her, and found that she was sitting upon a single egg, to which she added three, and brought off four young birds in the second week of June. One, if not two, other broods were reared in our near neighbourhood in 1889. In 1890 a nest of Little Owl containing six eggs was found in another hollow ash-tree in the park on April 25 : all these eggs were hatched and the young reared to maturity. On October 15 of the last-named year I received a Little Owl alive and uninjured that had been discovered by a pointer-dog a few days before in a rabbit-burrow in the park at Deene. I was informed that a bird- stuffer at Stamford had one of the present species (which he called a " Dutch Owl ") in his shop, in February 1891, sent to him from Normanton, Rutland. A " nestful " of young was discovered early in July 1891 by a gamekeeper in a hollow elm on the Wadenhoe Manor, and was left unmolested. During the first three months of 1 892 I received very frequent reports of Little Owls seen from many different places in the neighbourhood of Lilford, and on April 19 a nest containing four eggs was found on Wadenhoe, within a short distance of the nesting-place of 1891, in a cavity of an ash-pollard. Towards the end of June the tenant of the farm upon which this pollard stands, unaware of the Owl's nest, passed within a few feet of it, and was furiously attacked from behind by one of the parent birds, which knocked his hat over his eyes and clawed the back of his head severely. The only other record of this species that I find in my note-book for 1892 is to the effect that Mr. A. Thor- burn saw near our aviary, and made a charming F2 68 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE sketch of, a Little Owl mobbed by Robins, a Wren, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Marsh-Tits, Chaffinches, and a Blackbird, on November 11. In 1893 a nest containing several young was found in the park at Lilford, on May 13. I had authentic reports of one or two other broods on Wadenhoe, and another near Lyveden ; and on August 15 the victim of the above-mentioned attack informed me that, some six weeks before, he had again been violently assailed by a Little Owl in the churchyard at Wadenhoe. I have some reason to believe that there was a brood of these Owls in Wadenhoe church-tower. On Decem- ber 22 I was pleased to hear from a lady living at Stoke Doyle that several of these birds had made a settlement in some old trees near her garden. With the exception of the bird killed at Normanton, and another at Elton, I have not heard of the death, by human agency, of any Little Owls in our district, although a few have been picked up dead from natural causes. I generally receive my consignments of these birds during June ; very few come for food to the feeding-boards after the first week in August, and we leave off feeding about the middle of that month. These Owls delight in taking the sun, and are active during the hours of daylight. They are infinitely useful in the destruction of voles, mice, sparrows, and insects of many kinds, and have a decided liking for earth-worms. In Spain the Little Owl is very common and resident : from my own experience in that country I am disposed to think that it prefers the crannies of old buildings for nesting-purposes to any other sites, but it nevertheless frequently takes possession of hollow trees, and I have more than once found it breeding on the ground amongst the roots of AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 69 old cork- and wild olive-trees. It is not unusual to see a Little Owl perched on a tall thistle in broad daylight in the great plains of Spain, and it is still more commonly to be found in summer in the dry but water-worn " barrancos " or ravines that intersect these plains. This species is more or less common throughout Europe to the south of the Baltic, and is very nume- rous in Holland, from which country all my birds were originally obtained. In Italy the bird-catchers use the Little Owl to attract small birds to their limed sticks. In captivity this Owl is most amusing from its grotesque antics and its extraordinary tameness. No better destroyer of cockroaches can be found than one of these birds at liberty in a room infested by these loathsome pests. 22. GREAT GREY SHRIKE. Lanius excubitor. The only notice of the occurrence of this bird in our county which I can find is at p. 424 of Morton's ' Natural History of Northamptonshire,' before quoted. He says : " The Lanius cinereus major, the Greater Ash-coloured Shrieke or Butcher Bird : a very un- common Bird, except it be in the Mountainous Parts of the North ; and yet tho' a mountainous Bird, it breeds sometimes in Northamptonshire, and particu- larly in Whittlewood Forest, where 'tis called the Night-Jarr. Now and then one of them is seen at Winnick, in Ellinton Grounds, and in Stoke Albany Park particularly in the month of August." This is sufficiently perplexing, on account of the 70 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE information that the bird in question is called "Night- Jarr; " but as the very next species mentioned is the " Fern-Owl, Churn-Owl, or Goat Sucker," I cannot help thinking that the " Night-Jarr," and probably the mention of its breeding in Northamptonshire, have slipped into the wrong place. It has occurred to me even that the passages may have been trans- posed, and that the above quoted may refer to the Fern-Owl, and the following (on the same page and immediately below it), though headed "Fern-Owl, Churn-Owl, or Goat Sucker," really have reference to the " Greater Ash-coloured Shrike : " " This also is a Mountainous Bird frequenting the Rocky Woods of Yorkshire, Derbyshire, c. Yet was shot by Mr. Eyres of Dean in our Oxenden Closes in Sep- tember 1708." It is, however, I think, pretty clear that the Great Grey Shrike had really occurred in our county to the knowledge of the worthy old rector of Oxenden, who was a keen collector of birds, of which he tells us he had the skins or cases of above " one hundred sorts which were killed in this country " (qucere county I). Yarrell (' British Birds,' vol. i. p. 199, 4th ed.) says that this bird has never been ascertained to breed in this country ; and such an occurrence has most cer- tainly never come to my knowledge, all the statements to the contrary of which I have heard having collapsed on examination. The Great Ash-coloured Shrike generally visits this country in the winter, and its breeding in Whittle- wood Forest " sometimes " is, though of course not impossible, extremely improbable. I shall prove further on that Morton did not confound the present species with the Red-backed Shrike, Lanius colhirio, AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 71 as has often happened since his day, and altogether I think that those of my readers who are ornithologists will agree with me that our present species is much more likely to have been shot once in Oxenden Closes than to have bred more than once in Whittlewood Forest, to be seen now and then in various other places in the county, and to be called " Night-Jarr," whereas all the above occurrences are more than pro- bable with regard to the bird which properly bears this latter designation, though we moderns consider one final "r" sufficient. We will, at all events, re- tain the Great Grey Shrike on our list, and leave the locality to the judgment and taste of our readers upon the above evidence. In a letter from Mr. W. Dunbar, a well-known ornithologist, to Mr. G. Edmonds, of Oundle, kindly forwarded to me by the latter-named gentleman, he mentions the Great Grey Shrike as having been met with near Braunstone, and I was told many years ago, on good authority, of an occur- rence of this bird near Northampton. A specimen was shot by one Russell in Holme Fen, probably in 1824, as I am informed by Mr. John Heath cote, of Connington Castle. We cannot claim this last as a Northamptonshire bird, but I mention it, as a flight of some eight or ten miles \vould have brought it over our borders, and in treating of zoology it is irksome to be strictly bound by political divisions. This Shrike is common in Holland, Belgium, parts of France, and in Switzerland, in which last country I have often met with it. It is rather a shy and wary bird, generally selecting a tree-top or high bare bough in a hedge as a look-out station, and making off on the approach of danger with a rapid undulating flight. In the summer months the food of this bird seems to 72 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE consist chiefly of large beetles, butterflies, moths, and grasshoppers, but it is also very destructive to small birds ; in Switzerland, in the winter, I noticed that the various species of Titmouse are a favourite prey. In common with all the Shrikes of my acquaintance, this species generally fixes its dead prey upon a strong thorn, or in a forked twig, and pulls it to pieces, but I have also seen it stand upon its victim and devour it after the fashion of the true Raptores. The nest is GJ-reat <3-rey Shrike. large and rather loosely built of twigs and moss, with a lining of wool ; it is generally placed in a fork of a bough at some height from the ground, fruit-trees, such as apple, almond, pear, and plum, being often selected. The number of eggs I should say averages five, but I have known of several nests with six. When a pair of these birds have chosen a nesting- locality, they will not allow another of their own AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 73 species anywhere in sight, and pursue magpies, crows, jays, &c. which may intrude on their domain with great impetuosity and loud outcries ; when the young are hatched the old birds will occasionally even attack any person approaching their nest, and seem to lose all their natural timidity. The usual note of the Great Grey Shrike is a curious indescribable croak or scream ; but it occasionally breaks out into what may be called a song, a sort of jumble of the notes of many birds. I have at this moment in the room as I write a caged Jay, which sometimes reminds me very much in his discourse of these outbreaks of the Shrike, but the notes of the latter are more subdued, and, indeed, only audible at a short distance. For a short account of the services of this Shrike to the Falconer or Falcon-catcher in Holland I refer my readers to Yarrell's * British Birds,' vol. i. p. 201, and for a more detailed one to Messrs. Freeman and Salvin's ' Falconry ' &c. before referred to. I have found this species difficult to keep long in confine- ment, but all those I have so kept have been wild- caught birds. Since the above article was published several occur- rences of the Great Grey Shrike in our county have come to my knowledge ; as I have recorded these at various times in the ' Zoologist,' I only append a few of the details therein related with regard to them : Mr. W. Tomalin, of Northampton, informed me that a specimen of this Shrike was killed about the middle of November 1880 in Midsummer Meadow, close to that town. About the end of December of the year just named I received a fine young bird of this species alive, that had been taken, by means of bird-lime, near Glendon, on November 19. 1 kept this bird alive 74 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE for some months. The late Mr. G. Hunt shot a young female Grey Shrike near Tichmarsh Mill on November 1, 1881, and sent it to me. Colonel L. H. Irby and my son found one of these birds dead near Aldwincle on November 20, 1886. My falconer re- ported that whilst he was employed in an attempt to catch Falcons (in the fashion alluded to above), on November 11, 1889, his sentinel Shrike was visited by a wild bird of this species, which, after helping itself to a little of the said sentinel's food, remained in the neighbourhood of the hawk-hut for about an hour. I heard from Mr. W. Tomalin of the capture of a Great Grey Shrike near Northampton about three weeks before December 2, 1889, and I have some four or five other records from various parts of the county. 23. RED-BACKED SHRIKE. Lanius collurio. Twenty years ago 1 should have been justified in describing this bird (better known, throughout those parts of England in which it is found, by the name of " Butcher-bird ") as exceedingly rare in our neighbour- hood, indeed till 1860 I never even heard of its occurrence near Lilford ; since that time I have constantly been told of a pair or two having been met with in the early summer, at which time I am unfortunately almost always away from home, and now the Butcher-bird is, though not very abundant, a regular summer visitor, and breeds annually in our district. Morton, in his ' Natural History of Northamptonshire,' corrects an error of Willughby, who had represented the female of this bird as a AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 75 Reel -"backed. Shrikes anxl Larder. 76 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE distinct species in his ' Ornithology,' p. 255. Morton gives recognizable " draughts " of both sexes, and after telling how he had discovered the error made by Willughby by observing the birds in pairing- time, and by dissection, says : " Both the male and female of this species have been shot upon the bushes, in a bushy common south-west of Braybrook, in the month of May. But 'tis a very uncommon bird with us." He calls the bird " The Lesser Ash-coloured Butcher-bird." I have many notices of the occurrence of this bird in various parts of the county, but no records, except from our own district, as to whether it has become more abundant of late years. It is, I think, more common on light soils than on our stiff clays, and therefore probably better known in the south of Northamptonshire than in our district. In many parts of England and in North Wales I have found the Red-backed Shrike in some abundance, especially, in my school-days, in the neighbourhood of Harrow-on-the-Hill, where we often used to find two or three nests on a summer's afternoon in the thick and ragged fences which divided the great grass-fields of that district. I understand that the bird is now uncommon thereabouts, but it is gene- rally a well-known species in most of the southern and some of the midland counties. This Shrike generally arrives, or at all events used to arrive about Harrow, in the first week of May. The male is a handsome and conspicuous bird, and his curious chirping croak soon betrays his arrival. I have watched the manner of feeding of this species very minutely and very often : the male bird selects the topmost shoot of a thick thorn bush, or a projecting bare bough in a fence, whence he constantly darts AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 77 down into the grass upon a beetle, grasshopper, or other insect, every now and then varying this per- formance with an aerial excursion after a passing cockchafer, dragonfly, butterfly, or bee. In the case of a large or tough insect the bird generally fixes it on a thorn, and deliberately pulls it to pieces and devours it therefrom, but grasshoppers, small moths, bees, &c. are for the most part disposed of hawk- fashion, i. e. held by the feet of the bird, and torn up and eaten from the perch. As far as I could observe, this method is not adopted by the female Shrike, who seems to roam about more than the male, and to feed a good deal upon the insects caught and impaled by her mate, though of course she does a good deal upon her own account also till she begins to sit, when I believe that she is entirely supported by the male. I have never actually seen one of these Shrikes take a bird, but they often do so ; and I have more than once found the remains of small birds, in one instance a young Whitethroat (Curruca cinerea), impaled in the Shrike's larder. With the above exception and one large earthworm, I never found anything but insects in these thorny depositories ; but it is stated on good authority that this species also takes mice and shrews. Unlike the Great Grey Shrike, the present bird seems to have very little fear of man at any time, and I have often sat for a considerable time within twenty yards and in full view of a male Shrike, who pursued his avocations, as above described, with- out troubling himself in any way about my observa- tion. The nest is large, built of strong grass-stalks and moss, generally, but not always, lined with some wool or hair, often with no lining but a few fine roots or twigs, and situated in the thickest part of a bramble- 78 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE grown fence, or dense thorn or bramble bush ; one nest I found in a tall furze bush. The eggs are generally five, and vary a good deal in colour, but the ground-colour is generally either a greenish white or a creamy pink with a zone near the thick end, in the former case of brown, and in the latter of red and lilac blotches. 24. WOODCHAT. Lanius rutilus. This Shrike, though exceedingly common in sum- mer in many parts of Southern Europe, and not by any means rare in Germany and Holland, is a scarce bird in England ; and the only notice I have of it as a visitor to Northamptonshire is in a letter from Mr. A. G. Elliot, of Stamford, who says, " Woodchat, Laniijis rufus: I saw one in Gore Piece close to Duddington in the spring of 1869." Mr. Elliot is well acquainted with our British birds, and is not, I think, likely to have made a mistake about such a distinctly marked and conspicuous bird as the Wood- chat. Yarrell says that most of the occurrences of this species in England have been in the southern counties, and records two instances of its breeding in the Isle of Wight. In Southern Spain, where the Woodchat is a very common summer visitor, it is to be met with in all sorts of localities the outskirts of woods, olive-groves, gardens, and occasionally the great open treeless plains, where the tall thistles alone offer it a perch or look-out station. In general habits it much resembles the Red-backed Shrike, but AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 79 so far as I know does not attack small birds, which show no fear of it as they do of the former bird. The nest is always placed in a tree, composed of strong bents and cotton-grass externally, with a lining of fine grasses and moss. The eggs somewhat re- semble those of the Red-backed Shrike ; but I have never met with the red variety which is not uncom- mon in that species. The Woodchat is a very familiar and fearless bird, and seems often to prefer the vici- nity of human habitations for its nest. In all its habits this Shrike seems to me to approach closely to the Flycatchers. In the ' Field ' of January 13, 1883, there appeared a communication from Mr. Elliot, above mentioned, to the effect that a Woodchat had been picked up dead near Stamford. I at once wrote to him on the subject, and received the following reply: "The Woodchat noted in ' The Field ' was picked up dead on the 9th inst. ; it is a female, and in fair condition, the plumage is slightly soiled. It appears to have been on the fallow land some time, and had been dead at least two days before I received it ; one side of the head was slightly decomposed ; it was in very poor condition, and showed all the appearance of a bird that is picked up in a long frost. The exact locality, I believe, would be in Wothorpe parish, but it is in the occupation of a Stamford farmer and within 100 yards of Burghley Top, or deer-park, so that in reality the bird was found in Northampton- shire. This Lanius rufus I hope to place in my collection of British small birds. I have had several applications to purchase, also several gentlemen to see, the bird ; it will be there for show." I was 80 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE unable to go to Stamford at the time, and had no one to send upon whose identification of birds I could depend, so I will merely add that the date of this occurrence renders it doubly remarkable. 25. SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. Muscicapa grisola. This little summer visitor is so common and so well known in our county that a very few words will suffice with regard to it. In our neighbourhood it is generally known as " Cobweb ; " why, I cannot well say, unless it may be on account of that material being occasionally used in the exterior of the nest. In some notes on the arrival of summer migrants, kindJy supplied to me by the Rev. H. H. Gillett, formerly Rector of Wadenhoe, he gives the following dates of the first appearance of this species at that place : 1872, May 19 ; 1873, May 17 ; 1874, June 12. From my own recollection, I should say that the first of the days above given is about the usual date in this neighbourhood. A curious instance of the want of observation in our country people came under my notice with regard to this bird some few years ago. I was fishing on the Nen close to this house early in August, after a long absence from home, and my attendant, who had been all his life employed about the place as under gamekeeper, boatman, &c., was anxious to give me all the natural-history news of the neighbourhood, and began by saying that a very curious pair of birds had appeared in his cottage AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 81 garden, such as he had never seen before, and began to attack his peas. I at once thought that these wonderful birds must be Hawfinches, which have only of late years become common with us, and are great devourers of green peas, but my informant went on to state that to frighten these and other winged depredators, he had stuck up a battered old hat on a stick, and in said hat these unknown birds had immediately built a nest and laid their eggs. I then guessed what they were, and, pointing out a Spotted Flycatcher on a dead bough within a few yards of us, asked if that was anything like these builders in the hat. " Why, bless me, so it is!" was the answer, evidently given with genuine astonishment, though this Flycatcher is one of our most common, and, with the exception of the Swallow tribe, quite the most observable of our summer birds. I need hardly say that the propensity for peas was purely imaginary. I think that this species generally rears two broods, as I have often met with young birds in the nest late in August. I once, and only once, met with a Cuckoo's egg in a Spotted Flycatcher's nest. The same nesting-site is chosen year after year, but the old nest is seldom even partially used. All sorts of curious situations are selected by these birds, but on the whole I should say the favourite nesting-places are creepers, such as ivy, honeysuckle, &c., or the boughs of fruit-trees fastened to a garden wall. The young birds are fed by the old ones for some time after they leave the nest, and all take their departure about the second week in September. In the summer of 1889 a pair of Flycatchers made a nest and reared G 82 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE their brood in a standard rose-bush at the insertion of the first branches, about three feet from the ground, and within a yard of a much -frequented gravel-path at Lilford, and in 1893 a brood was hatched out within two feet of my head as I sat in my Bath- chair in a favourite shady spot in our flower- garden. 26. PIED FLYCATCHER. Muscicapa atricapilla. Though I feel little doubt about once having seen a male of this species close to Lilford, in the summer of 1853, I only had a momentary and somewhat distant glimpse of the bird, and cannot therefore positively affirm that it was a Pied Flycatcher. Mr. A. G. Elliot, so often previously mentioned, informs me that he shot at and knocked down a bird of this species near Barkston, but lost it in some long grass. He does not give me the date of this occur- rence further than that young pheasants were being reared at the time. I must confess that the only Barkston which I can find in the atlas appears to be a village in Lincolnshire, which would hardly come fairly within the limits to which I proposed to confine myself in these notes. The Pied Flycatcher is a summer visitor to England, and breeds regularly in several of our northern coun- ties, especially the Lake district of Cumberland and Westmoreland. It is not uncommon in certain parts of North Wales, the only British locality in which I have myself met with it. The nest is generally situ- ated in the hole of a pollard willow or other tree, AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. S3 often in an old wall ; in fact, very much in the sort of locality that we should look for a nest of the Common Redstart. The eggs are of a very pale blue, and generally five or six in number. Yarrell records an instance of eight in a nest, but, from my acquaint- ance with this species in Spain, I should consider that number as very exceptional. The male has a pleasant little song. I recommend my readers to lookout for this little bird, which, though it may per- haps not nest with us, I feel sure must pass through our county on its migrations, and only requires searching for. Since this article was written the following occur- rences of this bird have come to my knowledge : An adult male shot near Harleston on May 1, 1883, and kindly presented to me in 1891 by Mr. W. Tomalin. One seen at Williamscote, in Oxfordshire, within a mile of our county boundary, on July 26, 1884, by Mr. O. V. Aplin. One shot and another seen in Yardley Chase on May 3, 1887 (Mr. W. Tomalin). The bird shot is now in the Northampton Museum. An adult male was shot near Lilford on May 10, 1888, and is now in my possession. A male Pied Flycatcher was shot at Farthinghoe on May 2, 1888 (O. V. Aplin). Lieut.-Col. C. I. Strong informed me that he watched a male of this species for some time in his garden at Thorpe Hall, near Peterborough, on May 1, 1889. I received a report of the nesting of this species at Harleston in 1886, but as my informant only reported to me from a third person, I hardly feel justified in recording this as an ascertained fact. 81 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 27. GOLDEN ORIOLE. Oriolus galbula. This fine species can hardly be considered very rare in Great Britain, as scarcely a year passes in which several, and in some instances a good many, are not ruthlessly shot down on their arrival, generally at the period of the vernal migration. Yarrell gives the particulars of several nests met with in England, and others are on record, so that there is little doubt but that, if permitted, the Oriole would become as common with us as it is in many parts of Holland, Belgium, Germany, and France. I am glad to say that I have no record of a bird of this species having met its death in our county, but it has been seen on several occasions. The earliest notice I have is in a list of birds observed at and about Milton, kindly sent by Lady Mary Thompson, who tells me that about the end of May or early in June 1836 she saw one of these birds in the garden at Milton, evidently, from the description given, a male in full plumage. Lady Mary tells me also that, on speaking on the sub- ject to a Mr. Henderson, then gardener at Milton, who Avas a good observer and a collector of birds, he told her that he had seen the bird several times, and made several unsuccessful attempts to secure it alive: or dead. I was informed by the late Mr. 13. Watts Russell that a pair of Golden Orioles had haunted a large wood belonging to him near Benefielcl through- out one summer, and were supposed to have a nest there, which, however, was not found. I regret that I have not the date of this occurrence, but my impression is that it was between 1860 and 1865. In AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 85 18711 several times saw one of these birds about the lawn at Lilford in the late summer, and in 1879 was told of a bird that had been seen two or three times near the house in August and September, which, I feel convinced, must have been a female or young male of this species. I was informed by Miss A. Eden that in the last week of September 1883, she saw " a brilliant golden and black bird, about the size of a thrush," fly from a yew tree in the garden at Boughton House, Kettering, and Mr. G. M. Edmonds assures me that a bird answering to the above description was frequently seen by him and by his son, in and about Oundle, during the summer of 1892. The male Golden Oriole soon makes his presence known on his arrival in the spring by his clear, flute-like call, difficult to describe, but not particularly difficult to imitate to a certain extent, though the bird himself is rarely to be deceived by a human imitator. The Oriole has also a harsh, croaking note, often heard in the pairing-season, when the male is in pursuit of the female, or ad- justing his differences with others of his own sex. These birds especially affect the outskirts of woods in the neighbourhood of streams, and generally frequent the thickest foliage they can find. They will permit a very near approach when they consider themselves well concealed, and, indeed, are with difficulty forced to fly from a secure hiding-place. I believe the principal food of the Golden Oriole to consist, in the spring and early summer months, of various cater- pillars, grubs, and small earthworms ; later in the year they seem to take to a fruit diet, and in the Ionian Islands, where they are abundant at the time of the autumnal migration, play havoc amongst the 86 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE vineyards. Figs and cherries are also favourite food of these birds. In Spain the Golden Oriole is common almost everywhere in the summer, especially so in the outskirts of Madrid. The nest is very unlike that of any other European bird, being com- posed entirely of wool and long sedge-grass, and placed in the horizontal fork of a branch, generally, but not always, at a considerable height from the ground, and difficult of access, from being usually at or near the extremity of a long and slender bough. The eggs are generally five, of a glossy white, with very dark blue or black spots. I have found the young very difficult to keep alive for more than a week or two, though I know of instances in which they have been reared with success. I must add that I consider Northamptonshire as in most parts eminently well suited to the habits of this beautiful bird, and earnestly urge upon any of my fellow countymen who may have the good fortune to see an Oriole, to watch its habits as closely as possible, and refrain from shooting at, or molesting it in any way. There is no natural reason why this bird should not become a regular summer resident with us. 28. DIPPER. Cinclus aquations. This bird, though its favourite haunts are the banks of rapid mountain- streams and swift rivers, in which scattered fragments of rock and long reaches of gravelly shallows are constantly met with, has nevertheless occurred more than once to my knowledge in our county, which cannot boast of the AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 87 above amongst its many natural attractions. I have a specimen, purchased of Mr. A. G. Elliot, who assured me that it was shot by one Mr. G. Hurcock at Blatherwycke Mill, April 29th, 1868, and that it was the only specimen that had ever come into his hands during a long residence at Stamford. My brother tells me that he several times saw a bird of this species (with which he is well acquainted) about our boat-house bridge on the Nen, within some 200 yards of this house, in May 1876 ; the bird was also often seen by two or more other persons not ac- quainted with the Dipper, but whose descriptions leave no doubt in my mind with regard to its species. About Easter, 1850, I saw what I have no doubt was a Dipper flying along the Nen a little below the locality just mentioned. I was too far off to be quite positive ; but the only other bird it could have been is a Kingfisher, which it most certainly was not. Many instances are on record of the occurrence of the Black-breasted Dipper (Cinclus melanog aster), of Northern Europe, in Norfolk and elsewhere in this country ; but the specimen above mentioned as in my possession is of the usual British form, Cinclus aquaticus, with the broad chestnut breast-band, which is wanting in the former race or species. The Dipper is very abundant in many parts of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, in such localities as those I have above described, and is probably well known to such of my readers as are given to trout-fishing. The actions of this bird under water are very curious ; an interesting account of them will be found in Yarrell's ' British Birds,' 4th ed. vol. i. p. 242, which I have verified in every particular from personal observation the most ex- 88 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE traordinary part of the Dipper's proceedings, to my mind, being the way in which the bird sinks from the surface of the water, without, as almost all other birds which seek their food at the bottom, plunging or " taking a header." The Dipper sinks, if I may say so, horizontally, and, as may naturally be supposed, seems to have a good deal of trouble to keep below. These birds will go down in the most rapid streams and boiling pools below a waterfall, and, emerging with a jerk, fly off to a big stone, set up a short but very sweet song, and resume their subaqueous ex- plorations. All their movements are sudden and rapid; they seem to be always in a hurry, and are eminently in keeping with the character of the streams which they frequent, and to which they add a great attraction. I am sorry to say that some years ago a crusade was instituted in many places against this most pleasant and cheery little bird, on the charge of devouring the ova of the Salmonidae and other fishes. Yarrell (he. sup. cit. p. 246) calls this a mistaken idea. I have examined the stomachs of three or four individuals shot in Inverness-shire and North Wales, and found nothing therein but the remains of various insects and a few small shells. I believe that opinions are still divided on this question, which certainly cannot be very difficult of solution, but for my own part, were I possessed of a salmon and trout stream frequented by these birds, they should, if their inclinations prompted them in that direction, be as welcome to the eggs of the above- named fishes as the Kingfishers now are to the small fry of our Nen. The song of the Dipper, though not very powerful, is very pleasing, and is associated in AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 89 my mind with many delightful reminiscences of wild mountain and river scenery in our island and abroad. The male bird sits jerking his tail and warbling often amidst a whirl and roar of rushing waters, and, in manner, reminds one a great deal of the Common Wren ; the song is continued throughout the winter months. The Dipper's nest is a large mass of green mosses, sometimes, but not always, lined with leaves of the alder, birch, beech, or willow, with a hole at the side, generally placed in a rocky bank or a hole in old masonry close to a stream, often under a waterfall. The eggs are from five to seven, of a pure white. I have often attempted to rear young Dippers, but never succeeded ; about three months is the longest period I have ever managed to keep them alive. Since the above article was written a few more occurrences of this species in our county have come to my knowledge : e.