THE ORNITHOLOGY OF DERBYSHIRE. 59 



letter. Here and there one does, it is true, meet with a 

 landowner who insists on game-preservation being carried out 

 intelligently : or a keeper who spares the Kestrels and Owls 

 and reserves his charge for the Sparrow-hawk, but these 

 exceptions are few and far between. 



Some idea of the difference between the Derbyshire of a 

 hundred years ago and to-day may be gathered from the study 

 of the shooting diary of the Rev. Francis Gisborne, of Staveley, 

 from 1 76 1 to 1784. This paper was published in the volume 

 of the Journal of the D.A. and N.H.S. for 1892, but the 

 notes appended are those of an antiquarian rather than an 

 ornithologist. 



The great feature of that day was, of course, the presence 

 of some of the larger Raptorial Birds. The Golden Eagles 

 had gone long before that time ; but the Kite, the Common 

 Buzzard, and the Hen Harrier still glided and soared over 

 the heaths and waste lands. Pilkington, writing in 1789, 

 says: — "Perhaps there is a greater variety of falcons found 

 in Derbyshire than in the same extent of countr)" in any 

 other part of England." After mentioning as common the 

 Kite, Common Buzzard, Kestrel, and Sparrow-hawk, he goes 

 on to refer to other and rarer species. Even as late as the 

 sixties, Sir Oswald Mosley says that within his recollection 

 the Buzzard was so numerous that over twenty might be seen 

 on the wing at the same time over Etwall and Egginton 

 Heath.s. At the present time the Kite has entirely dis- 

 appeared, and the Buzzard only appears as an occasional 

 \-isitor, especially on the grouse moors to the North of the 

 County. The Merlin, one of the daintiest of the smaller 

 hawks, still attempts to breed on the moorlands, and perhaps 

 occasionally brings off a brood in the wilder parts ; but 

 generally one or both of the parents are trapped at the nest 

 and the eggs or young destroyed. The Kestrel and Sparrow- 

 hawk manage to hold their own, though in diminished num- 

 bers ; but the Hen Harrier, which once bred in some numbers, 

 is now a rare \'isitor. 



