INTKODUCTOEY. XVll 



a Woodcock had been the only victhns. Knots and 

 Grey Plovers, however, occasionally immolate themselves, 

 as also a few Starlings, Blackbirds, Thrushes, Cuckoos, 

 and Curlews. 



Of the literature of the subject there is little to be 

 said. No attempt that I know of has been made to 

 focus the condition of the county as regards ornithology 

 beyond the " Catalogue of Birds found in Lancashire," 

 compiled by Mr. Peter Eylands and published in the 

 Naturalist for 1837, and the papers on the " Birds of 

 Lancashire and Cheshire," written by Mr. Frank 

 Nicholson in the Manchester City News of 1875, and 

 both these are necessarily very much curtailed. " The 

 Natural History of Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Peak 

 in Derbyshire," by Dr. Charles Leigh, and published 

 at Oxford in 1700, contains many records of that period 

 which are exceedingly interesting, and, although dis- 

 figured by gross absurdities, I see no reason to doubt 

 the correctness of the ordinary information. The good 

 Doctor avers that ' ' these counties afford us great variety 

 of birds, and in some places even clog the inhabitants 

 with their plenty," and is always very careful to state 

 the capabilities of each species from a culinary point of 

 view. There are " no counties in England," he says, 

 " affording so great a variety of mines, minerals, and 

 mettals, with other choice products, and the most sur- 

 prising phaenomena of nature," and takes the oppor- 

 tunity of introducing among his " phaenomena " the 

 woman at Whalley who had two horns growing out of 

 the back of her head. From the " Ornithology of 

 Francis Willughby, F.R.S.," by John Ray, F.R.S., 

 London, 1678, I have culled some valuable notes ; and 

 in the " Journal of Nicholas Assheton of Downham," 

 from May 2, 1617, to March 13, 1618 (ed. Raines, 



h 2 



