extracts from an old account book kept by Charles Anderson, at 

 Broughton, near Brigg, from 1669 to 1673 ; — 



" 1670, September 26 — To John Hall, brought curlew - is. 

 ,, October 23 — Item to Thos. Beckett for killing 



two bustards 2S. 



Then there is a letter from the great Dr. Johnson, dated January 

 gth, 1758, to his friend, Bennet Langton of Langton, acknow- 

 ledging the receiving a parcel of game, amongst other things a 

 bustard which he gave to Dr. Lawrence. 



A letter written to myself by the Rev. Edward Elmhirst, 

 November 29th, 1886, containing personal recollections of Lin- 

 colnshire ornithology, also his communication made to the Field 

 newspaper, November 28th, 1886, concerning the former nesting 

 of the Hen Harriers in the moors near Market Rasen, are 

 amongst the most valuable contributions to the records of county 

 natural history in recent years. 



Of infinite interest also, as throwing light on the past, would 

 be the account books and records of captures made in the duck- 

 decoys at one period so common in the marsh and fen. We 

 have never met with more than one decoy book, namely, the 

 well-kept register of the Ashby Decoy, near Brigg, worked 

 successfully for so many years by Captain Healey. 



So marvellously abundant were wildfowl before the fens were 

 drained that we are told a flock of wild duck has been observed 

 passing along from the north and north-east into the east fen, in 

 a continuous stream for eight hours together. 



Our next faunal area is very distinct and well-marked — the 

 Chalk Wolds — in its greatest length from Barton-on-Humber to 

 Burgh, fifty-two miles, and the greatest breadth near Market 

 Rasen, fourteen miles ; the highest point of the range, 549 ft., is 

 near Normanby Clump, and this is the highest land in the 

 county. Before the general enclosure at the commencement of 

 the present century the wold was a wild and open region, a 

 rolling upland, more or less intersected by deep valleys. These 

 rounded hills were covered with heather and heaths, coarse 

 rough grasses, like the barren brome, and Aria caspitosa the iuhed 

 hair-grass, the most graceful if the most useless of all, with 

 thousands of acres together of gorse, and ancient thorns in 



