THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID LORD LILFORD ON BIRDS s> , . % ^ ORD LILFORD ON BIRDS BEING A COLLECTION OF INFORMAL AND UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS BY THE LATE PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION . WITH CONTRIBUTED PAPERS UPON FALCONRY AND OTTER HUNTING, HIS FAVOURITE SPORTS EDITED BY AUBYN TREVOR-BATTYE M.A., F.L.S., ETC. MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION AND ILLUSTRATED BY ARCHIBALD THORBURN London: IIUTCHINSON & CO Paternoster Row -* -* 190 3 PRINTED BV !KLL, WATSON AND VIN'EY, ID. LONDON AND AYLKSBURY. < i ' , PREFACE ORNITHOLOGICALLY this book falls into three natural divisions, each with its own particular appeal. The Mediterranean Journals with their lists of birds obtained or seen would be valuable, if only as models of careful work ; but beyond this, such a companion as their recorder must surely add delightful interest to any voyage in the narrow sea. None of the natural history has been left out ; the Editor has only ventured to remove (as not in any way material to the record) the greater part of the weather log, with purely personal or social references. Although the systematic position and the scientific names of some of the birds have changed since the diaries were written, they are easily recognisable by an ornithologist as they stand : it has therefore seemed well in the great majority of instances to leave them unaltered. The letters on his own countryside are, it is true, Si3668'' vi t PREFACE almost entirely concerned with the small occurrences of every day ; but all our knowledge of the ways of living creatures has grown from careful records such as these, and the subject is one of unfailing interest ; if it begins with Gilbert White, it ends where ? The same thought applies to the Aviary Notes ; how sure a welcome awaits these the record at first hand of a master ' aviarist ' is sufficiently brought home to us by the reflection that a periodical has been successfully run for years in this country, devoted to nothing else than an interchange of experiences among those who keep living birds. All the letters, unless it is otherwise stated, were written from Lilford Hall. They are not always given under order of dates ; it has often seemed better to group them about the leading subjects with which they are concerned. An opinion entitled to great respect was expressed to the Editor, that otter hunting and falconry, Lord Lilford's favourite sports, might need some introduction to the general reader ; that otter hunting is not, like fox-hunting, * everybody's ' sport ; and that, indeed, the idea not uncommonly obtains that the otter is still barbarously despatched with the spear. Falconry, it was pointed out, was a still more restricted pursuit. The Editor has therefore ventured himself to write a short account of otter hunting, and has been fortunate in obtaining a PREFACE vii description of falconry from the pen of the Rev. Gage Earle Freeman. 1 Nearly all of the pictures which illustrate this volume are studies of individual birds in the collection at Lilford. Our thanks are rendered to Mr. E. G. B. Meade-Waldo for his help in reading through the proof-sheets, and his kind interest in the preparation of the book. 1 Author of Falconry: its History, Claims, and Practice. We have much pleasure in quoting in this connection a passage we find in a letter written by Lord Lilford to Mr. Freeman in 1895 : " You have done more to keep English falconers in the right way than any man now living. No such practical work as yours has been written on falconry this century." LORD LILFORD'S FAVOURITE FLOWER. LORD LILFORD'S PUBLISHED WORKS. Coloured Figures of the British Birds. The First Edition of this work, which was issued in parts by subscription, commenced in October, 1885, and the second in April, 1891. 'Edition' is really a misnomer; for when in 1891 it was decided to admit a further set of subscribers (at rather a higher rate of subscription) only some eighteen (or so) of the plates had yet appeared. These were retouched and, in the opinion of many good judges, actually improved. Thenceforward the First and Second Editions were identical, running together and ending simultaneously. Notes on the Birds of Northamptonshire and Neighbourhood. This book was published in 1895. Some parts of it had already appeared in the form of communicated papers (see below) and some had been printed for private circulation. But besides these books Lord Lilford's literary labours include a variety of articles in the Zoologist, the Ibis, and elsewhere. Certain chance notes e.g., in the Field are omitted, otherwise the following list is believed to be complete : In the Ibis. Under the name of the Hon. Thomas L. Powys. 1860. Notes on birds observed in the Ionian Islands, and the provinces of Albania proper, Epirus, Acarnania, and Montenegro. Pages i-io, 133-140, 228-239. x LORD L1LFORUS PUBLISHED WORKS i Under the name of Lord Lilford. 1862. On the extinction in Europe of the common francolin (Francolinus vulgaris, Steph.). 352-356. 1865. Notes on the ornithology of Spain, 166-177, pi. V. (Aquila navioides). Ditto 1866, 173-187, 377-392, pi. X. (eggs of Aquila pennata and Cyanopica cooki). 1873. Letter on Calandrella brachydactyla and Numenius hudsonicus. 98. 1880. Letter on Larus audouini and other Spanish birds. 480-483. 1883. Letter on Otis tarda and other Spanish birds. 233. 1884. Rare birds in Andalucia. 124. 1887. Notes on Mediterranean ornithology, 261-283, pi. VIII. (Falco punicus). 1888. Preface to Dr. F. H. H. Guillemard's "Ornithological notes of a tour in Cyprus," 1887. 94. 1889. A n " s t f the birds of Cyprus. 305-350. 1892. Letter on Turnix nigricollis. 466. In the Zoologist. Under the name of the Hon. T. L. Powys. 1850. Occurrence of the smew (Mergus albellus) in Northampton- shire. 2775. 1850. Nest and eggs of the rose-coloured pastor (Pastor roseus). 2968. 1851. Occurrence of the Caspian tern near Lausanne. 3209,3210. 1851. Note on birds entrapped at a magpie's nest. 3275. 1851. Occurrence of black grouse and quails in Northamptonshire. 3278. 1852. Note on the kite and buzzard trapped at Blenheim. 3388. 1852. Occurrence of the black redstart near Oxford. 3476. LORD LILFOR&S PUBLISHED WORKS xi 1852. Occurrence of the ring dotterel (Charadrius hiaticula) near Oxford. 3476. 1852. Occurrence of the glossy ibis in Ireland. 3477. 1852. The shore lark (Alauda alpestris) breeding in Devonshire. 3707- 1852. Occurrence of the blue-throated warbler (Sylvia suecica) in South Devon. 3709. 1852. Occurrence of the pratincole (Glareola torquata) in Devon- shire. 3710. 1854. Occurrence of various birds in Oxfordshire. 4165. 1854. Note on the late abundance of the spotted crake (Crex porzana). 4165. 1855. Occurrence of the bittern and goosander in Northamptonshire, and of the red-throated diver in Plymouth Sound. 4762. 1855. Occurrence of Buonaparte's gull (Larus Buonapartit] on the Irish coast. 4762, 4809. 1 86 1. Note on the alpine chough as observed in the Ionian Islands. 7352. (In Ibis II. 136.) Under the name of Lord Lilford. 1877. Purple gallinule in Northamptonshire. 252. 1879. Green shag in Northamptonshire. 426. 1879. Manx shearwater in Northamptonshire. 426. 1880. White-fronted goose in Northamptonshire. 66. 1880. Solitary snipe in Northamptonshire. 444. 1 88 1. Ornithological notes from North Northamptonshire. 24, 61. 1881. Roseate tern on the Norfolk -coast. 26. 1882. Ornithological notes from Northamptonshire. 16, 392. 1883. 26. 1883. Note on the ornithology of Northamptonshire. 425-429, 466-468, 502. xii LORD LILIfORUS PUBLISHED WORKS 1883. Common scoter inland. 495. 1884. Notes on the ornithology of Northamptonshire. 192-194, 450-455- 1885. Notes on the ornithology of Northamptonshire. 181-183. 1885. Hoopoe in Northamptonshire. 259. 1886. Notes on the ornithology of Northamptonshire and neighbour- hood. 465-471. 1887. Notes on the ornithology of Northamptonshire and neighbour- hood. 249-254, 45 2 -457- 1887. A puffin in London. 263. 1888. Magpies attacking a weakly donkey. 184. 1888. Pallas's sand grouse in Spain. 301. 1888. Notes on the ornithology of Northamptonshire and neighbour- hood. 456-466. 1889. Hawks devouring their prey on the wing. 185. 1889. Notes on the ornithology of Northamptonshire and neighbour- hood. 422-430. 1890. Large race of great grey shrike. 108. 1891. Notes on the ornithology of Northamptonshire. 41-53. 1892. ,, 201-210. 1892. Variety of Grus cinerea in Spain. 265. 1893. Notes on the ornithology of Northamptonshire and neighbour- hood for 1892. 89-97. 1893. Purple gallinules in Norfolk and Sussex. 147. 1894, Notes on the ornithology of Northamptonshire and neighbour-^ hood for 1893. 210-221. 1894 Pheasant nesting in a tree. 266. Proc. Zool. Soc., London, 1881-1890. 1882. Exhibition of, and remarks upon, a skin of Emberiza rustica, caught at Elstree reservoir. 721. 1888. Exhibition of a specimen of Aquila rapax from Southern Spain. 248. LORD LILFORD'S PUBLISHED WORKS xiii Mammalia. In the Zoologist. 1884. Notes on Mammalia of Northamptonshire. 428. 1885. Dormouse in Northamptonshire. 257. 1886. Albino badgers. 363. 1887. A few words on European bats. 61-67. 1887. The bank vole in Northamptonshire. 463. 1890. Hedgehog v. rat. 453. 1891. The polecat in Northamptonshire. 342. 1892. The polecat in Northamptonshire. 20, 224. 1894. Barbastelle in Northamptonshire. 187. 1894. Barbastelle in Huntingdonshire. 395. For the above list the Editor is indebted to Dr. Paul Leverkiihn, C.M.Z.S., of the Scientific Library and Institution of H.R.H. The Prince of Bulgaria, Sophia. His compilation of Lord Lilford's papers was published in the Ornith. Monatsschrift des Deutschen Vereins z. Schutze der Vogelwelt^ XXI., 1896, No. 9, pp. 262-264. NOTE. The full title of Lord Lilford's well-known book, always spoken of as " Coloured Figures of the British Birds," and so referred to throughout this volume, is " Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands." CONTENTS CHAP PAGE LORD LILFORD'S PUBLISHED WORKS ix INTRODUCTION ........ i I. THE SURROUNDINGS OF LORD LILFORD'S HOME. . 4 II. LOCAL OBSERVATION . . . . . . .11 III. PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES .... 36 IV. NOTES ON ILLUSTRATIONS ...... 90 V. OTTER HUNTING, FALCONRY, AND SHOOTING . . 98 VI. NOTES FROM MEDITERRANEAN JOURNALS . . . 146 VII. TRIBUTES TO KNOWLEDGE, KINDNESS, AND SYMPATHIES 247 APPENDIX I 272 APPENDIX II . . . . . . 293 ILLUSTRATIONS LORD LILFORD IN HIS STUDY Frontispiece FISHING ON THE NENE Facing page 4 STUDIES OF BIRDS IN THE COLLECTION AT LILFORD HALL THE TAME LAMMERGEIERS Facing page 32 THE PINETUM ,,58 SANKEY AND GRIP ,,82 GOLDEN EAGLE'S NEST IN THE AVIARY ... ,,94 TRAINED GOSHAWK ON THE FIST ,,114 HOBBY, WITH LEASH AND BLOCK ,,132 STANLEY'S ,CRANE ,,170 RUFFS FIGHTING ,,184 FLAMINGOES IN THE AVIARY POND .... 196 THE GREAT SKUAS ,,214 GREENLAND FALCON ,, 234 CORRIGENDUM Page 83. Five lines from foot: for "are pendulous, and have no aftershaft " substitute "are pendulous but single, having no aftershaft." LORD LILFORD ON BIRDS INTRODUCTION THOMAS LITTLETON, fourth Baron Lilford, was born in 1833. In 1867 he was elected President of the British Ornithologists' Union, a position which he held until his death, in 1896. Such, in a word, is all that need be said here. For this is not a biography ; the personal history of the late Lord Lilford has already been written by one whose title to the task was clear. That picture, built on the intimate memories of a sister's affection, necessarily stands alone. But in the days of his travels and activity, and no less in those long years in the chair of an invalid, Lord Lilford acquired a large store of exact and absolute knowledge, which must needs have for inquirers in the same field a value too great to be missed. His, too, was a keen enthusiasm and a wide kindness of heart ; his constant daily endeavour was to encourage interest in living creatures and (quite humbly and simply) to help others through what he himself had learnt. The more widely could he have been helpful the better would 2 .INTRODUCTION he have been pleased. It is in the certainty of this assurance that the letters have been contributed which herein appear. The present book is, then, of Lord Lilford as naturalist as sportsman also, but primarily as naturalist revealed in his own informal writings. Entrusted to the Editor's hands with words whose very graciousness was their command, it has been till now delayed ; yet a book of this kind may gain, perhaps, not lose, in the perspective that a few years give. Be this as it may, all pains bestowed upon his task are but an imperfect measure of the Editor's true admiration for and grateful memory of this most charming of naturalists and kindest of friends. We should not visit him at Lilford till we have been with him in the Mediterranean which was his inspiration, or we shall miss the key to his later interests. For this reason are given parts of his old diaries when abroad. The diaries were recorded on a yacht, the letters were written with crippled fingers which scarce could hold a pen. These strictly natural history extracts give necessarily but an imperfect impression of how the letters really ran. Though all spontaneous and unstudied, those who received them used to think them something more than clear : they seemed marked by a simple grace of diction which gave them a distinction quite their own. Our duty has been to pass on to others a naturalist's thought and work, and we have attempted nothing more. Yet, as one looks again over these pages, one cannot INTRODUCTION 3 but wonder how much they may also perhaps convey of Lord Lilford's character and personality to those who did not know him. One cannot tell ; he was too little self-conscious ever to pose, ever to attempt self-portraiture. There were no mannerisms, conceits, or eccentricities to seize upon for ' genius ' ; he was a sane, single-hearted, keen, accomplished English gentleman. In all the letters we have had before us he writes but one thing of himself, and with that one thing we will end : " My life-history is soon summed up. I have, I fear, been an idler, devoted more to my own amusement than anything else, till I have learned, by physical suffering, the lesson that the real value of existence here below consists in the good that we may be able to do for others." 1 1 To Mrs. Owen Visger. CHAPTER I The Surroundings of Lord Lilford's Home THE life and work of Lord Lilford was to so great an extent inseparably related to his home, that it seems necessary to give some idea of this from the point of view of a visitor. The nearest town to Lilford of any pretensions is Oundle, which lies on the Midland Railway, about half- way between Kettering and Peterborough ; for Lilford is in the north-west corner of Northamptonshire, on the borders of what was once Rockingham Forest. It is in the valley of the river Nene, which, rising near the Haddons, runs the length of the county, and crosses the junction of Lincoln, Norfolk and Cambridge to enter the Wash. "Ours," writes Lord Lilford (August 5th, 1860) c< is a deep, slow-moving, muddy, weedy stream, producing pike, perch, eels, roach, carp, tench, dace, bream, ruff, rudd, chubb, bleak and gudgeon, and very rarely a trout." 1 To the Rev. Canon Tristram. LORD LILFORD'S HOME 5 And again (January 23rd, 1889) : " I never saw or heard of a barbel in any part of the Nene, certainly not in the neighbourhood of Lilford, as I own, more or less, some twelve miles of river and tributary brooks ; in my father's time the river was systematically dragged for the whole length of our domain in February and March, and I have bottom-fished every inch of it with every variety of bait at various times of year between 1840 and 1888, and never caught, seen, or heard of a barbel : in fact, I believe that our river produces every English river fish except barbel, grayling, and possibly one or two fishes of the family Salmonid*. Perch have perhaps increased in number in our river, but certainly diminished in average size very palpably. In my early fishing days we used to catch many of 2 Ibs. and over, and 3-pounders were not very rare ; but it is quite exceptional now to catch a perch of I Ib." Northamptonshire is commonly spoken of as a flat and rather uninteresting county ; but about Lilford, at any rate, it is neither the one nor the other. If not conspicuously striking, it is characteristically English, and as such is full of charm. It is a rolling, almost a hilly country, and is closely wooded with singularly fine timber. With the botany of this neighbourhood we are not acquainted ; probably its botany is not very distinctive, though henbane grows there (and not only on rubbish-heaps). Bladderwort 1 To Dr. Albert Giinther. (Utricularia\ too, is found in a backwater of the Nene ; and' bladderwort, as a natural! trap for living organisms, gives interest to any stream. The park at Lilford, though not in reality very large, appears to be so ; for, by means of sunk fences cunningly set, it merges insensibly into the surrounding country. It supports some three hundred head of fallow deer. But the glory of the park is its growth of trees. One does not often see in the same area so many noble trees of different kinds as here. The elms characteristic Northamp- tonshire trees have attained magnificent proportions, and the chestnuts, ash, beech and oak are not far from being as fine as they can be. The box grows strongly at Lilford ; it appears to do there almost as well as on its native chalk hills. It forms a hedge on either side of the road that brings you to the gates, and gives a warm look to the coverts. But a visitor to Lilford, especially if he went late in May, would probably bear away with him the memory of the hawthorns more than all of these, and he would be right. In many places in England, in old park and forest lands, thorns with larger boles may be seen old giants these, but commonly stunted and going back. But very seldom do thorns run up so high as at Lilford, or fall over from the top so gracefully, or reach so low and far with the tips of their fingers, and with such a foam of bloom. A country like this, of hollow elms and old oak woods, is always a favoured one for tree-loving birds though, alas ! LORD LILFORD'S HOME 7 they are not always protected with so strong a hand and such loving interest as here. The hawfinch, always a local and capricious bird in its choice of a breeding-place, was long waited for, but nested here at last. "Till the spring of the year 1870," Lord Lilford writes, 1 " we only knew the hawfinch in the neighbourhood of Lilford as an occasional, and by no means a common, winter visitor. On April 4th of the year just named I observed some half-dozen or more of these birds haunting the old thorn bushes on our lawn ; they remained about for some days, but in spite of minute and protracted search in the most likely localities we could not discover that they attempted to nest with us, and they had all disappeared before the middle of April. A pair or more, however, undoubtedly bred not far off, for in July and August I constantly observed some of the species about our kitchen garden. In the very severe weather of December, 1870 and 1871, we were visited by very large flocks of haw- finches ; and since the date last named some of these birds have nested regularly about our pleasure-grounds, and have become only too well known to our gardeners and cottagers from their constant and serious depredations amongst the green peas and other vegetables." Curiously enough, as against the establishment of haw- finches there was a gradual falling off in the numbers of 1 The Birds of Northamptonshire, i., 185. 8 THE SURROUNDINGS OF green woodpeckers, a bird to whose habits the district was well adapted. This is difficult to explain, but was possibly connected with a recurrence of very severe winters, which kill these birds in great numbers by preventing them from feeding on the ground, as they are much in the habit of doing. On the other hand, the lesser spotted woodpecker, in many parts of England regarded as rare, is at Lilford the commonest species of the three ; and Lord Lilford has this interesting note upon them : l " In the first sunny days of February, and sometimes even earlier, the loud, jarring noise produced by this species may be heard amongst the tall elms and other trees closely surrounding Lilford, often proceeding from two or three birds at the same moment, and continued at intervals from daylight till dusk. From long and close observation we long ago convinced ourselves that this noise is a call, and has nothing to do with intentional disturbance of insect food, as has often been supposed and stated; nor is it produced, as we with many others formerly imagined, by the rapid vibration of the bird's beak in a crack of rotten wood, but simply by a hammering or tapping action which the human eye cannot follow. On a calm day, or with a light, favouring breeze, the sound then produced may be heard at a distance of quite half a mile, or even more." 1 The Birds of Northamptonshire, i., 271. LORD LILFORD'S HOME 9 But, much as Lilford owes to its woodlands, it owes still more to the river Nene. This stream is a direct highway to and from the sea, and by it come many birds to visit or stay near Lilford's coverts and park. Some, flying high in air, follow it inland as a clue when they come from over seas. Perhaps the hobbies come that way : they appear in the Lilford woods about the middle of May, to lay their eggs in the old nests of the magpie or the carrion crow ; for the hobby is a wise little falcon, and waits for the clothing of the woods in leaf to make concealment sure. Probably the redwings and fieldfares also keep an eye on the river when they cross from Scandinavia in the autumn, and visit for food the Lilford thorns. Sandpipers and curlew also follow the Nene valley as they come south. The river brings in many wildfowl, and from time to time an individual or two of an uncommon species: thus, in January 1876 sixteen Bewick's swans came down near Lilford, and remained for several days ; while the tufted duck, pochard, scaup, and golden-eye are on the list of winter visitors. Apropos of the different behaviour of wildfowl on the wing, Lord Lilford writes : l " I noticed a peculiarity in the habits of this species (the gadwall) at the sunset flight : whilst the mallards would circle cautiously several times around their feeding- place before settling, the teal come dashing in over the 1 The Birds of Northamptonshire, ii., 175. io LORD LILFORD'S HOME tops of the reeds, and the shovellers drop in quietly in small parties, the gadwalls came straight over at a con- siderable height, and without any preliminary circumvolu- tion, always turned suddenly and came pouring in from the direction opposite to that of their first approach." These observations were made while sporting in Epirus. CHAPTER II Local Observation THE letters which follow speak for themselves. They are instinct with the spirit of the old first-hand observers, the spirit of Gilbert White. Remarks on the weather, on the hay crop, on spring and autumn migrations are followed by observations on particular birds, the success of experi- ments with little owls, or encouragement to friends away abroad. He was indeed the good genius of every would-be ornithologist, generously giving, out of his great knowledge and experience, help and information on even the smallest points. Anybody who heard a new note, found a strange egg, saw a doubtful species ; anybody who had a new bird ' fad ' or a new bird ' cause ' came to him. To " write to Lord Lilford " seemed to such persons as inevitable as to others to " write to the 'Times." And for all his shrewdness of intellect, sense of humour, impatience with folly and gift of satire, ignorance, if the right endeavour underlay it, was never rebuffed. Such kindness brought him an increasing volume of chance correspondence ; 12 LOCAL OBSERVATION yet his letters were always promptly answered, unless he were absolutely ill in bed. It is wonderful now to look back on this, and having even a very small fragment of his correspondence before one, to reflect on the resolution such work, so minutely and conscientiously done, must have entailed. As was but natural, his most regular correspondents were those who, like himself, were keepers of birds, or naturalists travelling in his old haunts. "July ibth, 1888. " Birds of all kinds are numerous here this year, but at least two-thirds of a wonderful hatch of partridges are drowned. We have at least three times our usual very small number of swifts, and the small waders, lesser white- throats, willow wrens, chifFchaffs, sedge and reed warblers are in very great force. The meadows are swarming with landrails." * "/ufy 31 j/, 1888. " The finest hatch of partridges on record in these parts is virtually extinct, and a fair hay crop has gone the same way. " Waders are passing over every night, and if the rain goes on for another week we shall have many snipes, spotted rails, whimbrels, and possibly a ruff or two. Black tern and green sandpiper have already appeared.' 1 To E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, Esq. 2 To the same. " 2 LOCAL OBSERVATION 13 " October \\th, 1888. " I am exceedingly obliged to you for yours of the I3th, and the interesting information therein contained, as well as for the paper on the sand-grouse in the Spurn district. f ' I do not know of one of these wanderers having been killed in this county this year, but I have good authority for the appearance in this neighbourhood of three together, and two solitary individuals. The first of these passed over the head of my informant within fifteen yards, with its feet hanging from the weight of the clay adhering." 1 " Bournemouth, October 315 f, 1888. " The first woodcock positively seen near Lilford was on October i8th, the first grey crow on October ist. Fieldfares, earlier than in any previous record, on September 29th. I have authentic information of a flock of some twenty felts in Cambridgeshire on September 5th. " I have heard of the great crested grebes breeding on several of the reservoirs in the southern division of our county for some years, and latterly on a large pond in the northern division, and also close to our frontier in Rutland." 2 "December igth, 1889. cc This has been a very peculiar autumn, in its average extraordinary mildness. We had snow and a few days of sharp frost in many places, but now foggy mornings, 1 To John Cordeaux, Esq. 2 To the same. H LOCAL OBSERVATION and generally bright, sunny afternoons. I have not heard of any great number of woodcocks anywhere, but it has been a good autumn for visitors on the east coast. I have heard of redbreasted fly-catchers, ortolans, fire-crest, and several two-barred crossbills. There was a marvellous invasion of common crossbills in Portugal and Andalucia in September and October ; the King of Portugal told me that for three days they were passing over some pine woods on the coast where he was shooting, in tens of thousands, and a great many appeared in the Campo de Gibraltar at Seville and at Malaga, where they were previously all but unknown. There was a great catch of hawks at Valkenswaard,* but L tells me that all were small birds. A Buffon's skuaf was picked up near Lilford alive on November st and sent to me." J " January 6th, 1891. " I have so far, by living upstairs in a room with double windows and a very big fireplace, managed to keep myself, a hoopoe, a Madeira blackcap, and one of the genus Turnix, J which ornithologists nickname the ' Andalucian 1 To E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, Esq. * Valkenswaard a village in North Brabant has long been a favourite place for the capture of hawks when on passage, by means of decoys and a bow-net. See article on Falconry later on in this book. t Buffon's Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus). This bird belongs to a group of the gulls, known (from their livelihood being largely gained by pursuit and robbery of other gulls) as 'robber gulls.' Buffon's is a characteristic Arctic species. \ The quails. LOCAL OBSERVATION 15 hemipode,' in very fair good health. Burghley tells me the small fishes find it so cold in the water that they jump ashore, in proof of which he has brought me two baskets full for my piscivorous birds." l " December 17 th, 1891. u I should very much like to have your otter, but as my principal object in view is a mate and playfellow for my female, I fear it would break her heart to part with him again, so that I must decline your offer with many thanks. I hear of very few woodcocks (we never have many) here- abouts, and singularly few snipes. Our valley has been more or less under water since the middle of October. We have had a good many ducks, and, for us, an unusual lot of teal. No end of fieldfares ; a good many arrived in September, about six weeks earlier than usual." 2 "February 17 th, 1892. " You are doing better out of this country at present ; for after some ten days of lovely mild weather, with wood- pigeons cooing, rooks building, and thrushes in full song, on Monday last, I5th, we had a fall of six inches of snow on the level, and last night the thermometer in our kitchen garden registered 30 degrees of frost. The Campo de Gibraltar, Cork Woods, Sierra del Nino, Plaza de Levante, etc., are delightful, and I am very glad that you enjoyed your three days there. 1 To the Rev. W. Willimott. 2 To E. G. B. Meade- Waldo, Esq. i6 " I am very anxious to have some of the marsh owls alive ; they ought to be breeding now." " May igth, 1892. " I have only been out of the house once since October last. I am told that most of our spring birds are here in very unusual numbers, and most of them earlier than usual. A pair, if not two, of little owls have taken their young off safely at no great distance. We have a great many hawfinches nesting close to the house, and a nest of long- eared owl and snipe (both deserted) have been found for the first time in my recollection in this immediate neighbourhood." l "May 2isf, 1892. " I have not heard recently ot any little owls * at a distance, and of no nests at more than two miles from this. I am told of two nests of tawny owls with the young still in them, and we have seven or eight barn owls sitting. Can you spare me any young long-eared ? I want to establish them at large here. " A nest of little woodpecker was found on our lawn yesterday ; the bird is common enough, but the nest is very hard to find. A kite was identified on competent authority about sixteen miles from us on the 2nd, and I hear of 1 To E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, Esq. * The Little Owl (Athene noctua), a Continental species. Lord Lilford [see later] liberated at different times many of these birds. LOCAL OBSERVATION 17 a " gurt ork " * (not a great auk) recently seen at about the same distance in another direction." l 11 September 6th, 1892, "These summer excursions and incursions of crossbills are very remarkable and unaccountable. The crossbill (curvirostra) is an exceedingly rare bird in this county, but the way in which hawfinches have colonised our neighbourhood is a caution and warning to gardeners. We always had, and I am glad to say, still have, great numbers of goldfinches in this district, where agriculture has never advanced since the Restoration." 2 " October toM, 1893. " Your mention of the abundance of hawfinches at Rope Hill is to me very remarkable, as, although last year we had at least ten or a dozen nests about our lawn and pleasure grounds, this year we could not discover one, and the birds were, comparatively, very scarce at pea-time. " With the exception of redwings, which arrived about a fortnight earlier than usual, all our migrants are late ; but a great tide has set in during the last few days, and our beech trees are full of travelling woodpigeons, chaffinches, and some bramblings, whilst flock after flock of pipits, linnets, skylarks, starlings and peewits are passing to the S.W. up our valley." 3 1 To E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, Esq. 8 To the same. 8 To the same. * Great hawk. 1 8 LOCAL OBSERVATION Note from " Aviary Record." "January lo/A, 1894: Green woodpecker (Gednus viridis] * pulling out thatch from roof of schoolhouse, Lilford (Edwards)." "December \1th, 1894. " We have scarcely any hawfinches in our neighbour- hood this summer, and I have heard of very few during the autumn. Before 1870 we looked upon them as very irregular, but occasionally abundant winter visitors ; now they are sometimes extremely abundant breeders, and scarce after the month of September." * " January 26th, 1895. " Three little auks, one of them captured by a cat, were brought to me from this neighbourhood the day before yesterday ; two were picked up in the county, and one of them brought to me alive about October I3th ult., and I heard of another found just over our frontier in Beds about the same time. G. L tells me of two in the New Forest on Monday last. Doctor H told me of the ' auk-storm ' on the Yorks coast. " The only other remarkable birds that I have heard of as occurring recently in I this neighbourhood are my bimaculated duck, or drake, on our decoy, on 2ist ult., 1 To E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, Esq. * The Green Woodpecker is less of a purely tree bird than our other woodpeckers, often seeking its food (ants, etc.) on the ground. This bird was probably looking for insects. LOCAL OBSERVATION 19 three smews on our river, near the house last week, and a waxwing female, shot at Brington on 2ist inst." l "April 2$th, 1895. " We had not much snow here, but the glass went down to below zero on several nights. I did not hear of many dead birds found here, except starlings and a few fieldfares. " We seldom have many song thrushes after the beginning of November, but two came constantly to be fed. There is no doubt that this species has suffered more than any of our common birds. I have only once heard its song, and I only hear of some half-dozen nests about our pleasure grounds, as against a usual average of twenty- five to thirty. " I do not perceive or hear about any noticeable diminution amongst our blackbirds, but starlings and robins are remarkable for their comparative scarcity just now. " We had a great many fowl about the middle of the frost mallard, wigeon, pochard, ten tufted ducks, a few teal, pintail, and three smews ; only one small lot of pinkfooted (?) geese. The most remarkable ornithological occurrences were those of a great northern diver that was killed near Northampton in December, and is now in my possession ; eight whoopers * that remained here for 1 To John Cordeaux, Esq. * The Whooper Swan (Cygnus ferus\ a winter visitor which breeds in Iceland. ao LOCAL OBSERVATION t two days, March i6th-i7th, and a grey-hen killed on 1 8th id." 1 "May $rd, 1895. " I cannot even hear of an occupied nest of owl of any sort hereabouts. It is true that almost all our favourite tawny owl trees were uprooted in the fall of March 24th, but we have some left, and plenty of the owls. Here three eggs is the rule, but I have known of four. "Our first swift appeared yesterday, and all our regular spring birds are now in, except turtle-dove, hobby, and nightjar. The cirl bunting is almost unknown in the county. I remember seeing several one summer between Southampton and Hamble, and used to see them at Hythe." 2 "April zoth, 1892. a I take it as most friendly and obliging of you to give me the very welcome news of the kites' nest in your county,* and I sincerely hope that your most praise- worthy efforts may be rewarded by your having the satisfaction of seeing some seven or eight kites circling in the air. I wish there was a chance of the return of this fine bird to its ancient haunts in the great woodlands 1 To E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, Esq. 2 To the same. * The Common Kite (Milvus ictinus), once the scavenger of London, is now only just not extinct in this country. Not many years ago several were wantonly slaughtered in a Welsh district, where now, as Mr. Phillips informs us, but a single bird remains. LOCAL OBSERVATION 21 of this country. I can just remember the days when it was still tolerably common." l "January i$th, 1893. "I am much obliged to you for yours of nth, and am very glad to have your experience about the kites remaining in Wales through the year : this is not the case in Inverness-shire." 2 "January 24^, 1895. " I do not think the kites would drive away the young during the year of their birth, but it is quite probable that they might object to the new building of a fresh pair within the limits of their hunting district. In my experience in Spain we seldom found a nest of red kite within a mile of another of the same species. The black kite, on the other hand, we often found in small scattered colonies of half a dozen nests, perhaps within a radius of 500 or 600 yards." 3 "April 2$th, 1895. " Thanks very much for yours of the 2ist. I am very glad that you enjoyed your visit to my beloved old haunts in Glentromie and Guich so much. We used to call the loch below the lodge, Loch'n Sheillach the Lake of the Willows. I grieve to hear of four stuffed eagles. All our spring birds as yet arrived are pretty 1 To E. Cambridge Phillips, Esq. 2 To the same. 3 To the same. 22 well up to their average dates. We have a good many plovers' eggs here, and a good many from Green Bank. There are, I am assured, two pairs of redshanks nesting in Achurch meadow, but the eggs are as yet undiscovered. 1 " That hill-fox hunting is not bad fun, and I hope that your party will kill all of them, and not send any cubs south for sale alive. I shall be very glad indeed if you can find a nest of goosanders* and send me one or two eggs ; don't take them all. I should very much like also some young mergansers alive. I suspect that you will have to watch very close to find a nest of goosanders among tree roots near water, or in a hollow tree. 2 " Four golden plovers in full summer plumage, with black waistcoats, have been for some days' haunting Achurch and St. Peter's meadow ; but these golden plovers do not lay till May, and of course the chances of their doing so are very small, f but whatever their intentions may be, they are evidently paired, and apparently * 1 To Walter M. Stopford, Esq. 3 To the same. * The Goosander (Mergus merganser} and the Merganser (M. serrator] belong to the tooth -billed division of the ducks, i.e., their mandibles have a saw -edge a provision designed to enable them to catch the fish on which they feed. They nest on the lochs in the north of Scotland, where the former is by far the rarer bird of the two. t The Golden Plover (Charadrius phtvialis) nests on high moorlands and high, open hills. LOCAL OBSERVATION 23 unwilling to desert their friends the peewits. We have fine weather, with bright sun, but bitterly cold winds. " I hear that the damage done by the hurricane in Norfolk is a thousand times worse than here, and it is woeful enough here. " If your goosanders are not mergansers, do all you can to find a nest, as but few have been found in Great Britain. The mergansers breed in all suitable localities in the Highlands. " The first pheasant's egg in the pens yesterday ; but there have been ' wild ' ones for the last week or more. " Siskins ought to nest on Speyside. " The Boughton keeper tells me of a sparrow-hawk taking a woodcock there on the 9th." * / "May 6th, 1895. " A pair of herons built a big nest in Piper's spinney just above Braunsea bridge, but they have not yet laid ! Well-regulated herons have young on wing before this. The last arrival in spring birds was a turtle-dove on the 3rd. All others are in except butcher bird, hobby and nightjar. There are no end of nightingales ; very few song thrushes ; numerous corncrakes ; a good sprinkling of cuckoos, tree pipits, chirFchaffs ; and more wood warblers than I ever knew of before." 1 To Walter M. Stopford, Esq. 2 To the same. 24 LOCAL OBSERVATION " June 2 tfh, 1887. " I am exceedingly obliged to you for your very interesting letter, which reached me here yesterday, and for the very perfect nest and eggs of wood warblers that came safely to hand this morning. The only one of my people here who knows this bird assures me that there are two pairs within a short distance of this house (they are by no means common just hereabouts),* but that he cannot find a nest. We are not much troubled by collectors in these parts, probably because we have no heaths or commons, and, as far as is generally known, no ornithological specialities. " We have a fine crop of barn owls, but not quite so many tawnies as usual. What do you say about the male owls sitting in a wild state ? I have known of more than one instance of a tawny male, and scops, ditto, shot from the nest." l "January 2ist, 1896. " The black-throated diver recorded by me in last Field is the only unusual bird that has occurred to my knowledge in the district of late. We had thousands of fieldfares, and our usual number of redwings ; about our average of woodcocks (a very small one), hardly any snipe, and no wild-fowl except mallard, in any number. " The woodpigeon malady of diseased primary feathers 1 To E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, Esq. * Because the Wood Warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix) is a beech- loving species. LOCAL OBSERVATION 25 was very noticeable here, but having devoured the few acorns, the survivors have left us for some time. Hawfinches and storm thrushes have been very scarce." 1 "August $rd, 1888. " My falconer took two very young hobbies * yesterday from a big nest in a tall oak tree about 150 yards from that out of which he took three on July 28th in 1886 and 1887. The woodman averred that four young kestrels were hatched in, and flew from this year's nest about six weeks ago. These two young birds are the largest that I ever saw for their age ; they are entirely down-clad, except tips of tail and wing feathers. There was a woodpigeon's nest, with two small young, in the same tree as the hobbies." : "September 6th, 1891. " I have had a glimpse of what I believe to have been an osprey here, but I was at the moment engaged in a fight with a pike, and the bird disappeared behind some high trees, and I saw it no more." 3 " September 6th, 1892. " I only know positively of one brood of little owls hatched out this summer hereabouts ; we have every reason, 1 To E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, Esq. 2 To the same. 3 To the same. * The Hobby (Falco subbuteo). This little falcon is a summer visitor to Britain, arriving after the appearance of the leaf on the ak-trees, in which it usually nests. 26 LOCAL OBSERVATION short of certainty, to believe that another lot have come off successfully. " I have a pair of young bearded vultures flying at hack.*" 1 "June i4//z, 1892. " I had no idea that there were even three pairs of ernes f now nesting in our islands ; but, three or thirty, I would subject people attacking them to losing their right hand, their left ears for an osprey, and their noses for a kite." 2 "February zofh, 1892. " You may be interested in hearing that we have a little owl (Athene] sitting on five eggs in a hollow tree not far off. I have turned out a great many of these birds during the past few years, and this is the fifth nest of which I have had positive information." 3 " December I'jth, 1894. " T - B - was here for a few hours on Saturday, and told me of your redwing-killing kestrel. It is only curious to me that a ( raptor ' with such comparatively 1 To E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, Esq. 2 To the same. 3 To E. Cambridge Phillips, Esq. * Young falcons, before being taken into training, are allowed to live at liberty so long as they will come regularly to take the food placed for them by the falconer. This is called flying 'at hack.' See article on Falconry later on. t White-tailed Sea-eagle (Haliaetus albidlla). LOCAL OBSERVATION 27 powerful feet as the kestrel does not more often pick up birds from the trees, bushes, and in air. Of course, we know that he takes a certain number on the ground. I have only twice in my life seen a kestrel go for a bird with apparently murderous intention : * in the first instance at a missel thrush, which baffled him entirely in a thick tree, and as I believe, scared him off by chatter ; in the second instance, curiously enough very near the same place, I was standing forward under a fence about up to my shoulder for partridges, and a covey rose at perhaps five hundred yards from me on a big pasture field, and were coming skimming the ground towards me, when one of the kestrels that I had noticed circling and hovering high in air, shut its wings and made a really grand stoop at these birds (they were hardly big enough to shoot), and put the whole lot except the old cock (who came on to me and met his fate) into some long grass and rushes. The stoop was so fine that I thought that I must have been deceived as to the stooper, but there was in fact no mistake whatever about it. " Do your redwings suffer from the kestrel in the air ? And do you notice any other birds taking the holly berries ? We have very few hollies in this neighbourhood, and I cannot discover that any birds save redwings, and rarely other Turdi, even touch them." l 1 To E. G. B. Meade- Waldo, Esq. * The Kestrel or Wind-hover (Falco tinnunculus), like the barn-owl, habitually feeds on mice and voles. 28 LOCAL OBSERVATION " September 6tA, 1891. " With regard to the hybridisation of pigeons. I received last spring, from a neighbouring parson, a bird that I believe to be one of the persuasion known as ' Antwerp carriers.' It was caught, unable to fly, near his house, and he, thinking it might have escaped hence, let me know about it, and eventually sent it over to me as a present. It has a metal ring round one leg, with a date, letter and number. After a few days I put this bird into the aviary with the Bolle's, the laurel and trocaz,* besides a male stockdove. This latter has paired with the carrier, and they are now taking turn and turn about on two eggs. I am very curious to see what the produce, if there is any, will be like. They have been sitting about six days." "January i3/$, 1893. " Are you quite satisfied that some of the birds imported by Mr. H - did actually come direct to him from Asiatic Turkey ? In the only district in Albania in which we found pheasants, their chief diet consisted" 5 of acorns, Indian corn, hips, privet berries, and of course insect food. " The variety, not only in size and weight but also in markings and in habits, between grey partridges from different parts even of our own islands, is indeed most 1 To E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, Esq. * Pigeons : Columba botlit, C. laurivora and C. trocaz (see later). LOCAL OBSERVATION 29 remarkable. In Northern Spain the common grey partridge ranges up to and breeds at 5000-6000 feet above the sea, and very rarely comes below 2000 feet. It is a small, dark-coloured bird with nearly black legs, and is by no means common, Caccabis rufa being the partridge of the country." x "June i^th, 1892. " There is in my opinion no harm whatever in killing the old male bustards * at any time up to the end of May, and no excuse whatever for killing hens after March ; but supposing that every British officer from Gibraltar killed every bustard he shot at between September and May 3ist, I do not think that it would materially affect the breed in Spain ; for Andalucia is constantly reinforced from Estremadura and La Mancha, and the natives really trouble very little about those birds, though they will shoot at them or at anything else, from the nest or not, when they get the chance. " If any real harm is done to the breed of bustards in Andalucia it is in the marisma, where almost every herdsman carries a gun and squirts at everything." l 1 To E. Cambridge Phillips, Esq. 2 To the same. * The Great Bustard (Otis tar da}, once an inhabitant of open cultivated and uncultivated lands in Britain, now only an irregulai visitor to this country, is shot by ' driving ' on the Andalucian plains. 30 LOCAL OBSERVATION " March i2th, 1887. " Are you aware that, about the year 1 808, a gamekeeper of the name of Agars, then in the employ of W. Thos. St. Quintin, Esq., of Lowthorpe and Scampston Hall (Yorkshire), secured eleven great bustards, as the result of one shot from behind a stalking horse?" 1 ' ' September 2 2 nd, 1895. " Three polecats were killed near this place early this year. I can remember them nearly as common as stoats, but of late years we seldom get hold of more than two in three or four years. No marten has been killed in this county to my knowledge for some ten or twelve years, or for some thirty before that. They used to be quite common some seventy years ago, in the forest of Rockingham." 2 " December i2th, 1895. "With regard to peregrines about Salisbury cathedral, I can only say that seven is a very unusual number to be seen together, but there is no impossibility about it. " I am glad to hear of the proposed arrangement on the spire in favour of our friends, the peregrines." 3 " March ibth, 1895. " I knew that a pair of peregrines occasionally bred upon the spire of Salisbury cathedral, but I had no idea that they 1 To W. H. St. Quintin, Esq. 2 To the same. 3 To the Rev. W. Willimott. LOCAL OBSERVATION 31 did so regularly, and am delighted to find that the good dean takes such a warm interest in them. It is remarkable that the red-throated diver at Northampton should have been considered as worthy of record in the Times and Standard, whilst the much rarer great northern diver (killed in the same neighbourhood) and given to me in November last, passed, so far as I know, without public record of any sort." 1 "December 26th, 1894. was shot by Lord Coke in the park at Holkham, not more than a mile from where she was originally taken, within twenty-four hours after she was lost. Lord Coke, curiously enough, sent her body to my friend who had first received her alive." * "Bournemouth, March \\th, 1890. <( The bearded vulture * or Gypaetus is to be met with in all the sierras of Spain, but certainly does not breed 1 To the Rev. W. Willimott. * The Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) ranges over lofty mountain chains from Portugal and Spain to the Himalayas. For an account of Lord Lilford's domesticated pair, see Presidential Address, P- 39- THE TAME LAMMERGEIERS. LOCAL OBSERVATION 33 in the neighbourhood of Valencia, which is more or less of a flat garden for miles. Poor Rudolph was always in such a tearing hurry that he never gave himself a chance of becoming really acquainted with the birds of Spain ; of course, as Gypaetus does not breed in colonies, never lays more than two eggs, and is by no means a wary bird, it can hardly be said to be c common ' anywhere in Europe ; but my experience has been to the effect that a pair, sometimes two pairs, are always to be found breeding in Spain, not amongst, but very near to the many colonies of griffons. I believe that you will find that all the most birdy localities on the Danube, above Belgradej are in the hands of private owners, who, however, especially in Hungary, are most civil and obliging to English naturalists. Let me know if you think I can be of any sort of use to you." l " April i$tA, 1888. "I do not remember to have heard of golden eagles hatched in captivity, or, as far as I recollect, even of their laying eggs in those circumstances. The truth, as I am firmly convinced, is that in these large species of eagle, the birds are not really f mature ' till they have com- pleted their fifth or sixth year, and in a wild state some never acquire the fully mature dress, though they may live for a hundred years ; and another curious fact is that a pair of old eagles that have bred and driven off 1 To Col. H. Barclay. 34 LOCAL OBSERVATION their young in one season, will often pass a year or two in the same locality, and use the nest as a resting-place, without any attempt at reproduction, and resume the process in another season. I must say that I have never seen anything more confirmatory of the passage of small birds on the backs of large ones, than the presence of enormous numbers of Motacilla flava* amongst several hundreds of freshly arrived storks in South Spain, in 1872. We saw this as we went by steamer down the Guadalquivir : the wagtails were scarce till we came down to the spot upon which the storks were drilling and consulting, and there the little birds were swarming." 1 "October tfh, 1889. u I had a letter two days ago from the Crown Prince of Portugal, describing a marvellous passage of crossbills over a sandy, pine-grown district on the coast of that country, where the bird was previously entirely unknown. He says that he and his companion shot a hundred and fifty, and were only deterred from shooting several thousands by the fact that they had butchered more fiian they wanted. By the same post I had a letter from Seville, telling me that there are now large numbers in that neighbourhood, where hitherto they have been, to say the least of it, very uncommon." 1 To Dr. Albert Giinther. 2 To the Rev. Murray Matthew. * The Blue-headed Wagtail. LOCAL OBSERVATION 35 " December igt/t, 1889. " Did you shoot any of the Hierro ravens ? And do they in any way differ from the ordinary type ? " I presume that Hierro is the least-known island of the Canarian group ; from your account it would not be a very eligible residence for any length of time, but in my younger days I would have made acquaintance with those big lizards,* or known the reason why." l 1 To E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, Esq. * Lacerta simoni. Simony's Lizard. A very large lizard that is confined to a small rocky island little more than a rock off the coast of Hierro. There are two of these rocks, the Zalmones, on only one of which the lizard lives viz., that farthest from the shore. Owing to almost continuous surf it is rarely possible to land. This lizard feeds on crabs. The Hierro raven is C. tingitanus, the Tangier raven. E. G. B. M-W. CHAPTER III Ponds, Paddocks, and Aviaries As is well known, Lilford was celebrated during the late peer's lifetime for one of the most remarkable in some directions the most remarkable collections of living birds in any private hands. Carefully as birds may be attended to (and the management of the Lilford aviaries was little short of perfection), it is inevitable that in a large collection losses and additions must make constant changes in the list. But Lord Lilford's presidential address to the members of the Northamptonshire Field Naturalists' Club, which follows here at length, so admirably describes the chief features of the collection at that date, that it needs but a few words of introduction. Lilford Hall is a dignified and comfortable-looking Jacobean house, built of grey Ketton stone, and a little raised above the river Nene. The hall door faces a gravel, balustraded sweep, which formed a favourite parade-ground of the ravens, Sankey and Grip. The south the drawing-room side looks on to a terraced lawn, where the falcons sat on their blocks, PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 37 grouped about an old cedar. Beyond this, and towards the right, stretch other lawns and shrubberies. Here was the long line of large aviaries devoted to waders, doves and other birds. Opposite these again, and partly sheltered by over- hanging trees and scrub, where Mantell's apteryx hid from daylight and laid its egg, was a large natural shallow pool, in which flamingoes waded and a few wildfowl swam. On the opposite side of the house the ground falls quickly to the river, and here, close to the wall, was the twisted beech tree in which the ravens made their nest ; and a little farther on, the summer enclosure of the elephantine tortoise which it took five men to lift. Directly behind the house is a wide courtyard, about which were situated a variety of living things. Here the Spanish bear lived in its corner ; and close by it the pair of bonxies, or great skuas (' robber gulls ') shared a subdivided enclosure with great bustards and Bewick's swans. In another corner was the eagles' aviary, and near it a long glass-covered house, where the lemurs were, and long rows of cages containing beautiful and rare finches, blue jays, jay-shrikes, the grakles, and other birds described in the presidential address. On the same side, but away beyond the house, about two acres of ground had been completely enclosed, and were known as the Pinetum. It contained fine timber trees, shrubberies, grass, and water, and was entirely sur- rounded with a high iron fence and wire netting. This netting was made cat-proof and fox-proof, by splaying 38 PONDS, ' PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES the barbed wire top towards the outside, so as to throw back any marauding climber. The great glory of this large enclosure was the collection of cranes, for such a collection had almost certainly never been got together before. Also in this paddock were the pelicans. The water was divided into two areas by a grass-covered causeway which ran across it, and was a great sunning-place for the ducks. At the sides of this enclosure were aviaries which held several varieties of partridge and francolin, and others in which lived a wild cat and the large dormice. So much for the general situation of the birds' homes. We will now visit the collection itself under the only possible guide ; for no memory of visits to Lilford stands out like that of the gentle master of all ' our show ' (as he used to call it), wheeled about among his birds. Here one day he halted to point out, and very cautiously, a willow wren's nest in a thick shrub on the lawn, built most unusually at a height above the ground. Presently he called attention to a dark hole where the apteryx was hidden with her egg ; and soon he was nursing in his arms another apteryx, which had been taken from its hiding-place; for this bird is so strictly nocturnal that you would never see it at all were you not some- times to extract it from its chosen haunt. The following account of the Lilford collection was given by Lord Lilford, as his Presidential Address, on PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 39 the occasion of a visit (in February, 1894) from the members of the Northamptonshire Field Club. " It occurs to me that, as I have virtually recorded, in our Natural History Journal, all of importance that I had to communicate with regard to the occurrence of birds in Northamptonshire, and as, to my very great regret, I am (as I long have been) unable to occupy the presidential chair and address the meeting in person, it may interest and amuse some of those present to listen to a few notes upon some of the inmates of our vivaria at Lilford. "It is probable that some of those present have already visited Lilford, and to these I sorrowfully announce that my old raven, Sankey, whom they will remember as one of the most amusing of our living creatures, went blind some years ago, and died last year. His companion of later years, Grip by name, is quite as amusing, but not so familiar and sociable as the c late lamented,' whose name he constantly repeats, and has apparently taken to himself. Since the death of Sankey, Grip has had, as a mate, another raven, from Spain, and is rapidly instructing it in every sort of mischief and ' devilment.' One after- noon in November last, I heard these ravens making a very unusual clamour close in front of the house, and on looking out of the window, perceived that they had got hold of, and nearly killed a peregrine falcon ; I sent out a servant, who secured the falcon without difficulty. We found that it was an old wild bird suffering from a sort of asthma 4 o PONDS,- PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES known to falconers as the ' croaks,' and somewhat poor in flesh. I would willingly have tried to keep this falcon alive and restored it to liberty, but the ravens had injured it so severely that it was only common mercy to kill it. How or why it allowed itself to be seized and worried by its antagonists we can never know. " Our Spanish bear will also probably be remembered by any who have come to Lilford during the ten years that she has been here ; I am glad to say that she is still well, though occasionally subject to rheumatism, resulting from an injury to one of her legs on her journey to this place. In connection with this animal a rather amusing: 1 D incident occurred some years ago : I was anxious to provide her with a companion of the other sex, and, having heard of several of these in the possession of a dealer, during my absence from home entered into nego- tiations for the purchase of a young male bear from Russia. The dealer in question accepted my terms without sending me a reply, and the next news of the matter that reached me at Bournemouth was a telegram from Lilford announcing the arrival there of a female bear, without any previous warning or advice of despatch. Upon this I telegraphed to the dealer, saying that the animal sent was of the wrong sex, and would be returned to him at once. It will hardly be believed that on receiving this message my enterprising friend sent off a second bear to Lilford without notice, and again a female, so that for one night there were three she-bears PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 41 on the premises ! My old bear is very good-tempered as a rule, but on one or two occasions has shown great fury to strangers, without any apparent cause. She is now so accustomed to solitude, as regards her own species, that I should hardly like to introduce a younger and weaker bear of either sex into her company. It is perhaps worthy of note that this bear is particularly fond of the leaves of the elm, but either wholly rejects or shows no liking for those of any other of our common trees. "Another four-footed lady at Lilford for whom I am anxious to find a mate, is the otter, caught some years ago when not half-grown, near Warmington, and now living in and about a small tank in our kitchen garden. " My collection of mammalia is small ; perhaps to the general public the most interesting of this order of animals, now living at Lilford, would be the ruffed lemur, from Madagascar, a beautiful nocturnal animal, allied to the family of monkeys, with fine, long, black and white fur. Two collared fruit-bats have been here for some years, but as these beasts spend the whole of the day hanging head downwards from the top of their cage, I can hardly expect that the ordinary visitor should care much about them ; their bodies are, roughly speaking, about the size of a moderate- sized common rat, the outstretched wings would measure about three feet, perhaps more, from point to, point. This species breeds annually in the Zoological Gardens, whence I procured my specimens ; it is found 42 PONDS, -PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES in Egypt, Palestine, and Cyprus, where it commits great ravages upon dates and other fruit. I have living specimens of the four European species of dormouse, but have nothing of any general interest to record about them, except that one species, known as the 'garden dormouse,' does not exhibit the drowsy tendencies of our common English dormouse or the two others of this family in the day-time, but is always remarkably active, and ready to bite and scratch, whenever handled. We have during the last two years bred a good many of the exceedingly pretty striped mouse of Africa, known as the Barbary mouse, from a pair procured for me by a friend in Morocco. We have not taken the trouble to make special pets of any of these mice, but they are not only very tamable but also capable of a considerable amount of education : a lady who paid us a visit last year brought one of these little animals with her, and had taught it to sit up on a doll's chair, open a little cupboard, take sugar from a drawer, hold up and drink milk or tea from a teacup, sham dead at her command, and perform other tricks ; in fact, this mouse displayed quite as much intelligence, in his degree, as an average lady's lap-dog. "Although we have had many losses among the birds of prey, some of the oldest denizens of our aviaries are of this class ; in fact, the most ancient living creature in the collection is a white-tailed or sea eagle, taken from a nest in the south of Ireland in the early spring of 1854, PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 43 and therefore now very nearly forty years of age. It is only of late that she has shown any signs of old age, in a certain lack of activity that causes her to remain much upon the ground instead of perching ; but she is still in very fine plumage, and it would, I think, be extremely dangerous for a stranger to venture into her compartment. This species of eagle has been so persecuted and killed down in its former breeding-haunts in Scotland and Ireland that I may say with certainty that not more than three pairs, at the outside, now nest in the United Kingdom. A few stragglers visit our country irregularly on passage, probably from Norway, and meet with no mercy, being, with few exceptions, shot or trapped at once, and almost invariably recorded in the newspapers as * magnificent specimens of the golden eagle.' This golden eagle is far more common in Scotland than the sea eagle, but fortunately seldom travels to any very considerable distance from its mountain haunts. Northamptonshire is one of the few English counties that can lay claim to an occurrence of the golden eagle within its limits, whilst nearly every English county is guilty of the blood of the sea eagle. A very fine immature female of this latter species was killed at Oakley, near Kettering, in February 1891, and I am acquainted with several other occurrences in Northamptonshire. In my opinion there is no sense or reason in the destruction of an eagle in our country but so long as 'British bird-collectors offer long prices for specimens slaughtered within the limits of the four seas, 44 PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES every loafer with a gun will very naturally shoot every feathered thing that offers him a chance. " Mr. Cosgrave,* my chief in charge of the Lilford collections, assures me that the birds that afford, perhaps, most amusement to our numerous visitors are a black and a griffon vulture, that have been here since 1865 and 1867, and were both taken in my presence from their respective nests in Spain. The former bird is a female, and for the last twelve or thirteen years has annually made a large nest and laid from one to three eggs. Since the griffon (of whose sex I am uncertain) has been in the same compartment with this black vulture, it has annually taken a share in making the nest, and displayed quite equal ferocity on the approach of human visitors. The first egg is generally laid during the first week of March. As I considered the pairing of these two birds, though extremely improbable, as not entirely impossible, I have once or twice left the eggs in the nest, but although assiduously incubated by both birds, they have invariably proved infertile. How- % ever, for months after the eggs have been removed, the black vulture, when any one approaches the front of the * Clementina Lady Lilford writes : " Richard Cosgrave entered Lord Lilford's service as falconer and keeper of the aviaries in November 1893. His intelligence and his interest in birds, increased by constant friendly intercourse with, and instruction from Lord Lilford, soon made him a most valuable and reliable assistant,, and one whose unfailing devotion and trustworthiness were deeply- appreciated by his employer." PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 45 compartment, goes through a variety of most grotesque antics that provoke the most stolid of visitors into roars of laughter, and must be seen to be believed in at all events I should be extremely puzzled to do them adequate justice with pen and ink. During this performance of its companion the griffon vulture frequently assumes very absurd attitudes of defiance, possibly of admiration, but does not take any very active part in the ' show.' " We have two fine bearded vultures, or lammergeiers, one of which (with a companion that has died very lately) enjoyed complete liberty since its arrival here as a nestling till a few days ago, when I was obliged to have it caught up and confined, on account of very conspicuous breaches of decency about the roof of the house and our flower garden. I extremely regret this necessity, as the sight of these large birds soaring about the place, generally pursued by a cloud of rooks, was certainly unique in England, and afforded to me, who am well acquainted with the lammergeier in its native haunts, a constant source of interest and pleasant memories of localities that are still to a great extent unspoiled by man. These birds of mine were very tame and perfectly harmless ; indeed, with the exception of a few playful attacks on trousers, gaiters, petticoats and boots, I never heard of any malice on their part towards any living creature. Their natural food consists of carrion and garbage of all sorts, tortoises, and other small reptiles ; and I hold the many stories that are current on the Continent, of their carrying off 46 PONDS, -PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES children, lambs and kids, as very nearly, if not entirely mythical. " Amongst the most beautiful of our recent acquisitions in raptorial birds is an adult white-bellied sea eagle from Australia : this is the first of its species that I ever possessed, and its strikingly contrasted plumage of pure rich grey and white render it a very great ornament to the collection. I have many other eagles of great interest to myself, but not calling for special notice in notes intended for a more or less public meeting. " Of my favourite birds, the owls, I have at this time of writing some twenty different species alive. I may mention, as special varieties amongst them, a very fine Nepaul wood owl, a South African eagle owl, and four Ural owls ; I believe these birds to be the only living representatives of their respective species now in England. "Whilst on the subject of owls I may add that for several years past I have annually set at liberty a considerable number of the little owl, properly so called {Athene noctua\ from Holland, and that several pairs of these most amusing birds have nested and reared broods in the neighbourhood of Lilford. It is remarkable that, although this species is abundant in Holland, and by no means uncommon in certain parts of France, Belgium and Germany, it has been rarely met with in a wild state in our country. I trust, however, that I have now fully succeeded in establishing it as a Northamptonshire bird, and earnestly entreat all present, who may have the PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 47 opportunity, to protect and encourage these birds ; they are excellent mouse-catchers, very bad neighbours to young sparrows in their nests, and therefore valuable friends to farmers and gardeners. The nest of this owl is generally placed either in a hollow tree at no great height from the ground, or in vacant spaces in the masonry of old buildings. The parent birds are very bold in defence of their young, and a neighbour of ours has had his hat knocked off by one of these little owls as he passed near the ash-tree in which there was a brood of young a fact of which he was quite unconscious. I confess that when this story was originally told to me by a third person I had my doubts as to its truth, but last summer I had an opportunity of enquiring from the aforesaid neighbour, who assured me that not only was this story perfectly true, but that he had been again attacked last year, in a different locality, by a little owl, which no doubt had young ones in the roof of an old church hard by. These little owls are very easily tamed, if taken in hand whilst quite young, and, besides their taste for mice, are very efficient in the destruction of cockroaches and other beetles. " I cannot help once more taking up a text that I have, I fear, worn almost threadbare already ; it is never destroy or molest an owl of any sort. I consider all the owls as not only harmless, but most useful, and the barn, white, or screech-owl as perhaps the most serviceable to man of English birds. I think that farmers and game- 4 8 keepers have discovered that in destroying owls they are murdering their best friends, but as long as women persist in disfiguring themselves by wearing owls' heads and wings as ornaments, and dealers will give a price for these birds to make up into screens (for which they find a ready sale), so long will the idiotic destruction of owls continue. " To revert to the collections at Lilford, we have a large number of caged birds of many different species, amongst which I may specially mention as sweet singers, a blue rock-thrush that we took from the nest on the coast of Sardinia nearly twelve years ago, and two of a small dark race of blackcap from Madeira, that have passed five winters at Lilford, and are both singing in the room in which I am now writing. " I must not forget the very beautiful Indian birds commonly known as ' shama,' of which I have two. The natural notes of this bird are very varied and powerful, many of them extremely sweet, and they readily imitate the songs of other species, and indeed almost any other sound that they can compass. To those of you who c&re about birds, and are not acquainted with the shama, I may say that this bird is larger than a redbreast, to which it has a certain resemblance in shape ; but it has a tail longer in relative proportion than that of our common magpie. Roughly speaking, the upper parts of the plumage, head and throat, are glossy black, the breast of a tawny orange colour, and the long tail black and white. No PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 49 more charming cage-bird than this can be found ; but, alas, it is not very long-lived, and is very susceptible of cold and damp. "Another cage-bird worthy of notice from its rarity, beauty, and pleasant song, is the so-called * Teydean ' chaffinch. The natural habitat of this species is strictly limited to a high zone of the Peak of Teneriffe ; it has never been met with elsewhere. I may briefly describe this bird as considerably larger than our common chaffinch, and of a general fine grey colour. " I have recently lost another bird of great interest from its rarity, and the locality from which it was forwarded to me : I allude to the chestnut-winged grakle (*Amydrus tristrami). This bird, the only one of its species that has ever been seen alive in this country, is of a family allied to the starlings and crows, and was procured from the neighbourhood of the monastery of Mar-Saba, not far from Bethlehem. The monks protect and encourage these birds, which become quite tame, and nest in the caverns and fissures of the cliffs in the gorge of the * Brook Kedron ' and similar localities in Southern Palestine. Mar-Saba is somewhat difficult of access, but is frequently visited by tourists in the Holy Land, to whom the bird to which I am referring is generally known as the golden-winged blackbird. Canon Tristram tells us that the male has a loud and melodious whistle ; but my bird was a female, and almost silent. " Amongst my most beautiful cage-birds I must note 4 50 PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES i two species of South American jay, the common blue jay of North America, the so-called ' blue robin ' from the same country, the green leaf-bird from South India, and a troupial from Brazil. " In what we at Lilford specially designate as the Aviaries I have a considerable variety of birds from different parts of the world. Amongst those most likely to arrest the attention of visitors unlearned in birds are a group of avocets, with their curiously delicate upturned beaks, their plumage of pure black and white, and their long grey legs and half-webbed feet. These pretty and interesting birds were formerly common in certain parts of England, and bred in considerable numbers upon the coast of Norfolk, but have now become scarce from the persecution of gunners and egg-stealers. My avocets were sent to me from Holland. We have also several sea-pies, better known perhaps as oyster-catchers, and a good many other small wading birds, such as curlew, godwits of both species, ruffs and reeves, redshanks and knots. The antics of the ruffs during May and June are most amusing. u As I believe that the breeding of the wood-pigeon in captivity is not a common occurrence, I mention that a pair of these birds nested and laid four times last year, in the compartment of the aviary nearest to the house at Lilford, and reared three young birds to maturity. I have a fine pair of the wood-pigeon peculiar to the island of Madeira (Columba trocaz), and many of the very beautiful crested doves of Australia, which breed freely in the bushes PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 51 of the aviary. Another very brilliantly plumaged bird of the pigeon family is the green and gold Nicobar pigeon ; but this bird has no attraction, except the brilliancy of its plumage ; it is sluggish, and often remains crouching under a bush for hours together. " Some fine purple porphyrios, or water-hens, with red beaks and legs, are pretty sure to attract notice ; the birds of this family now in the aviary are from Cochin China. ' c We have four species of ibis : the brilliant scarlet ibis from South America, the black and white sacred ibis from the Upper Nile, the Australian ibis that very closely resembles it, and a small flock of the European glossy ibis. These last-named birds were sent to me from Spain ; and it may amuse some of you to hear that in the winter of 1892 I sent out a list of birds to an agent in Seville, who has for some years been in the habit of collecting live birds for me. In making out this list, I wrote opposite to the Spanish name of the glossy ibis (which is not in most seasons a very common bird in Andalucia), two Spanish words that might be liberally translated as meaning ' a good many.' My amazement may be imagined when I inform you that, in June 1893, I heard from my agent aforesaid that he had ninety-five of these birds awaiting my orders ! I told him that I did not want more than twenty or thirty at the outside, but he nevertheless shipped sixty of them from Gibraltar, all of which were landed alive and in good condition in London, and twelve of them forwarded to Lilford. These birds have a very 52 PONDS, . PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES peculiar habit of taking the sun by elevating one wing to its full extent towards the sky and drooping the other to the ground, in an attitude that I have never seen in any other bird. " In the central division of the aviary are a small flock of Alpine choughs, very active and noisy birds, with black plumage, yellow beaks, and red legs. Many of this species have nested and laid eggs in their compartment, but in the few instances in which the eggs have been hatched out, the parent birds have entirely abandoned their young after the first or second day. I have had many of that beautiful species, the red-legged or Cornish chough, but although they thrive well in complete liberty I have found it impossible to keep them in health in the aviary for any length of time. " Other most lively and amusing inmates of this part of the aviary are the nutcrackers rare and irregular stragglers of the crow family to our country, but common enough in many of the forests of Central and Northern Europe ; these birds in their native haunts commence laying in March, whilst the snow still lies deep upon the ground. Whether from this or some other cause, it is comparatively speaking only of recent years that the eggs of the nut- crackers have become generally known to ornithologists, and I had offered a high price for the living bird to English and foreign dealers for thirty years before I could obtain even one of them. During the last few years I have been offered many more of these birds than I require. PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 53 The seeds of various coniferous trees, especially those of Pinus cembra, are the favourite food of the nutcracker. " The farthest division of the aviary, divided into three compartments, I have devoted principally to aquatic birds, amongst which a small group of flamingoes are perhaps the most remarkable, not only from the beautiful roseate colour of the upper parts of their wings, and their extravagantly long necks and legs, but also from the extraordinary and apparently unnatural positions that they constantly assume. On one occasion a damsel who visited the flamingoes with a large party, on seeing these birds, was heard to exclaim to her mother : ' Oh ! Ma, do just look at these great geese ; wouldn't they just make fine giblets ? ' We have never put the necks of these birds to culinary use, but the flesh of their bodies is tolerably good eating, and there is a tradition to the effect that their tongues were considered as great delicacies by the epicures of old Rome. I have seen many acres of marsh thickly covered by flamingoes in Southern Spain, and the effect of the rising or setting sun upon a dense flock of these birds on wing is indescribably beautiful, giving at a distance the effect of a floating roseate cloud. U A pink-headed duck from India, in this part of the aviary, is one of the rarest birds in my collection ; during my forty years of live bird collecting I have only obtained three of this species. The present survivor is a female, and by no means a handsome or conspicuous bird. A small flock of marbled ducks from Spain are 54 worthy of notice as exceedingly rare in living collections, though common enough in Andalucia and North-west Africa. Perhaps the most beautiful of the web-footed birds in this portion of our aviaries are the Japanese teals ; but with these little ducks, as indeed with almost all others of the duck family, we have been grievously disappointed in our hopes of nests and eggs ; in fact, in the case of the two last-mentioned species, I am not aware of the production of even a single egg. We have a fine pair of the blue wavy or white-necked goose from North America, and of the white snow-goose from the same country. " In the central aviary will be found two very beautiful species of small herons, the little and the buff-backed egrets. My specimens came to me from Spain, but the latter bird is also very abundant in Egypt, and is con- stantly pointed out by the guides to British tourists as the sacred ibis of the ancient Egyptians, a bird that has for many years been almost unknown in Lower Egypt. These egrets are most adroit fly-catchers, and my birds feed themselves to a great extent on these pests during the summer months. I have at this moment a dominican gull that has been here for more than twenty years, and has reared several broods of young hybrids, produced by a cross with the common British herring gull. An Australian thick- knee, or stone curlew, is a very great favourite with us, from its tameness and quaint attitudes ; this is a handsome bird, considerably larger than the 55 thick-knee or stone curlew of this country, with a delicately contrasted plumage of various shades of brown and buff, and brilliant yellow irides. " In the courtyard, in a wired enclosure adjoining the domicile of the bear, are two of the great skuas (Stercorarius catarrhactes\ a dark-coloured bird of the gull family ; these birds were sent to me from the island of Foula, in Scotland, which island is, with the exception of one other locality in the same group, the only British breeding-place of this species. tc A few years ago an enterprising youth at Birmingham issued a circular proposing the formation of a syndicate, whose members should invest various sums as shares in a fund to enable the advertiser to visit the Orkney and Shetland Islands to collect birds' eggs, the plunder to be divided according to the respective amount of sub- scriptions. The eggs of the great skua were specially mentioned, as likely to be the most valuable result of this looting adventure. In the interest of birds in general, and of this bird in particular, I at once sent the circular above mentioned with an indignant protest to the editor of the Times ; Mr. Wilson Noble, M.P. for Hastings, with whom I had no acquaintance or correspondence, did the same, and a strong leading article on the subject of the destruction of rare birds appeared in the T'imes simultaneously with these communications. The result of all this was that the editor of one of the leading papers in Birmingham received an evening visit from 5 6 PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES the author of the circular, who, in fear and trembling and dread of incarceration in the Clock Tower at Westminster, begged that his advertisement might be withdrawn from circulation, and confessed that it was only a scheme to obtain funds for a private holiday excursion to the North for egg collecting. " These skuas were sent to me in charge of a native of Foula, a small island that lies at some eighteen miles distant from the mainland of Shetland. This individual had never seen a tree worthy of the name till he took the train from Aberdeen on his way to Lilford ; and although he spoke excellent English, was evidently of pure Scandinavian descent, and to me, as a naturalist, more interesting even than the birds that he brought with him. The proprietor of Foula, who sent me these skuas, is very anxious to protect the breeding birds, but the high price offered for their eggs by unscrupulous collectors, often, I fear, proves too great a temptation to the few inhabitants of this rocky and unproductive island. The old skuas, or * bonxies,' as they are called in Shetland, are very powerful and courageous birds, and in defence of their young will attack, not only eagles and other birds of prey, but also any four-footed animal, and even human beings. They live principally by robbing other gulls of their prey, and, as I was assured by the Shetlander before mentioned, frequently catch and devour the smaller gulls themselves ; for this purpose their sharply curved claws are well adapted. PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 57 " In the enclosure next to the skuas is a group of great bustards, from Spain, all birds of last year. This fine species, as most of you are probably aware, was formerly well known, and not uncommon, as a resident in various parts of England, notably in the open districts of Norfolk, Suffolk, the downs of Sussex, Hampshire and Wiltshire, and the wolds of Yorkshire ; but enclosure, high farming, and the increase of population have driven the bustards away, and in England nowadays we are only occasionally visited by a few stragglers, that very rarely escape the fate of all uncommon birds. In Spain the great bustard is still very numerous, and is not much molested by the natives, who do not esteem its flesh highly ; yet a young bustard is, in my opinion, excellent for the table, and even the old males, which not infrequently weigh 30 lb., can be made into first-rate soup. From the nature of the country that they inhabit, and their exceeding wariness, these birds afford most exciting sport. On this subject I cannot do better than refer any of those present who may be interested in sport or natural history to a work entitled Wild Spain by Messrs. Abel Chapman and W. Buck. " In conclusion of our round of inspection at Lilford, we next come to what no doubt will prove to ornitholo- gists the plum of the collection, in an enclosure in the park behind the house known as the Pinetum. Here we have a pond with various species of ducks and a 5 8 PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES pair of crested pelicans, taking their pleasures thereon ; but the main interest centres in the large collection of that very graceful family, the cranes. Till within a month ago I was the proud possessor of specimens of all this family save one, the wattled crane of South Africa ; but, alas ! my three beautiful Stanley cranes all drooped and died within a week, leaving a lamentable gap in the beautiful group. -The rarest of these cranes is the hooded crane from Japan (Grus monachus] ; and unfortunately the only individual of this species that I have been able to obtain broke a leg last summer, but is in perfect health ; this is not a very striking bird, either in colour or size, when compared with other cranes. In my opinion the very acme of bird beauty is reached by the Manchurian, or sacred crane of Japan, which is so commonly represented in Japanese paintings and embroidery ; and I think that the great white crane of North America comes as a very close second in elegance of shape and grace of movement. But all the cranes are beautiful from the stately sarus of India, which reaches to a height of six feet, down to the demoiselle, of about the size of a thin goose. " Before leaving the Pinetum I must relate an occurrence in connection with birds, that amused me vastly at the time, and may raise a smile now. A visitor to Lilford, who evidently took a great interest in our birds, was just leaving, when he suddenly turned to his conductor and said : ' By the way, I saw in the papers THE PINETUM. In the foreground a Wattled and a Crowned Crane. Behind, from left to right, a Stanley and a Sarus Crane, a Black Stork and African Pelicans. PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 59 some time ago that Lord Lilford had given a very- long price for an egg of the great auk. I trust that he was successful in hatching it.' To those present who are aware that the great auk has been virtually extinct in this world for some fifty years, the humour of this inquiry is apparent. " I have this moment received a telegram informing me that an egg of the great auk was sold by auction in London this afternoon for three hundred guineas." The greater number of the letters which follow were written to a correspondent, himself a most successful breeder of birds. Like Lord Lilford, he placed the owls among his first favourites, and had for years successfully bred the eagle owl of Europe (Bubo maximus\ and had been also very fortunate with the snowy owl (Nyctea scandiacd] and many other species. Hence the constant references to owls. This gentleman was spending many successive winters in the Canary Islands, and because of his thorough and admirable work done there, came justly to be the acknowledged authority on the birds of those islands. But though their letters do not here appear, Lord Lilford had correspondents in many European countries, and men whom he set to find him birds. It is not without its side of pathos delightful to think of this kind naturalist, sitting in his study (his hand, so to say, on the ornithology of Europe), spinning 60 PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES the threads which wove into such interesting and valuable results, the blue rock-thrush and the little Madeira blackcap singing by his chair the while. "June 24th, 1887. " I am glad to hear that some buzzards have flown, and hope that the Montagus * may do likewise. " I grieve to say that all the nests and young birds in my aviaries with one or two worthless exceptions came to grief this year. The Alpine chough hatched three young, but after feeding them assiduously for several days suddenly gave up all care of them, and my man failed in his efforts to bring them up by hand. The eagle owl's eggs were bad went rotten as they do with me three times out of four. The tawny owl ate the only young one hatched. " I am much obliged for your offer of the young eagle owls, but I have no room for them. I will try to place them for you if you wish to dispose of them. I should think that the Duke of W , who encourages eagles and almost all wild birds on his forest, would like to try the experiment of turning out these grand birds. * In reference to the nesting of the Common Buzzard (Buteo vulgaris) and Montagu's Harrier (Circus cineraceus) in Hampshire. Both these fine and interesting birds endeavoured, with varying success, through many years to bring off their young. But in spite of the most energetic efforts to protect them, it is found difficult to evade the collector of British-taken, eggs. PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 61 " The polecat ferrets are first-rate ratters, but are rather big for the job. I have not found them particularly savage. If your young badgers are not too old, you will find that by keeping a good-tempered young dog or two with them, and never allowing them to hide themselves up in the day, they will become as tame and playful as otters." 1 "June 24//, 1888. " I congratulate you on your tame shrike : I lump together all the great grey shrikes, L. major, L. extcubitor, L. meridionalis, L. algeriensis, L. lahtona. All grey birds have a tendency to isabellinism under a hot sun and dry surroundings. T - , S - , D - , and others would, if they could, make species of the sun and moon." "August itfh, 1888. "I am no ' chattist,' and do not know Pr. borbonica at all. I write entirely without book, and of course know nothing of the habits and voice of your bird,* but being a c lumper ' am at present induced to look upon it as a good race, or sub-species of Pr. rubicola quite as good though, as a species, as Parus britannicus, P. Cypriotes, and many more. 1 " 3 1 To E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, Esq. 2 To the same. 3 To the same. * A true stonechat (Pratincola dacotice), peculiar to the island of Fuerteventura, in which island even it is very local. E. G. B. M-W. 62 PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES "July 2&tA, 1 838. u I have very great pleasure in offering for your acceptance two Lapp owls (S. lapponicum},* of which species I received ten young birds last night from Helsingfors, with two of S. uralense^ eight S. ulula^ and five S. tengmalmi. If these two last lots thrive, 1 could, and should be glad to send you one or two of each." * "July 3ist, 1888. " Alas ! I wrote to you in the first exultation of the receipt of the owls that arrived late at night. I was not able on account of the incessant rain to get out to see them on Saturday, but seized an interval between showers on Sunday to be wheeled round to inspect them ; and am sorry to say that all of the Lapp owls have evidently been taken from the nests much too soon, and with one or two excep- tions, have one wing broken, besides a good deal of cramp and general debility. Two of them drowned themselves in a shallow pan ; of the eight left, I fear that I must lose one. The others are all flourishing and as tame as can be. " P.S. It has not rained for nearly two hours, and I have just been to look round. The Lapps have, with one exception, improved immensely since Sunday on warm rats and rabbits. I do not know that any of these owls, 1 To E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, Esq. * One of these Lapp Owls given me by Lord Lilford in 1888 is still alive, September 1902, and in perfect health; it is a male, and has always had one stiff wing. These Lapp owls are the only individuals of the species that have ever been imported into Britain. E. G. B. M-W. PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 63 except Tengmalm's, have been seen alive in England before ; certainly S. uralense has not. The hawk owls fly to hand, and feed thereon. I am quite certain that they might be trained to take young rabbits and rats." * "August igth, 1888. " These Lapps were evidently taken too young from the nests, and no doubt were hustled and crowded in panniers on their journey by pony and boat to Helsing- fors from the breeding-place. I believe that you will find a brail very useful ; we put brails on the whole lot when they first arrived, and all the survivors are very much improved.* My experience is that all these wood owls eat but little at a meal, comparatively speaking, but require a good deal of food before the first moult. I have a very rare and beautiful large wood owl from Nepaul ( tells us that he found in the ruins of Kharsabad a bas- * Falconry (Badminton Library), by the Hon. G. Lascelles, p. 339. t Mr. Freeman wrote for many years on hawking matters in the Field, under the pseudonym of ' Peregrine.' n6 OTTER HUNTING, FALCONRY, SHOOTING relief, * in which there appeared to be a falconer bearing a hawk on his wrist.' Aristotle, in his Animated Nature, says : ' When the hawks seized a bird they dropped it among the hunters ' ; and, in a work ascribed to Aristotle, we find : ' Hawks appear when called.' I find that I copied the following from Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. iii., chap, vii., p. 65 : ' Hawks and falcons were also favourite subjects of amuse- ment, and valuable presents in those days, when, the country being much overrun with wood, every species of the feathered race abounded in all parts. A King of Kent begged of a friend abroad two falcons, of such skill and courage as to attack cranes willingly, and seizing them to throw them on the ground.' Spelman, in his Glossarium Arch