116 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



Pigeon's, and he thinks there are always a few pairs 

 breeding annually in the Park, as he regularly sees 

 l)irds in the spring among the fir-plantations. Lord 

 Lilford writes me that it breeds in the fir-woods at 

 Ruftbrd, and, according to Mr. Pi. Standen, it does so 

 also at Claughton. Mr. T. Jackson says that a nest 

 was taken at Winmarleigh in 1880, and that every year 

 four or five specimens pass through his hands. It is 

 rare in the Eibble and Hodder valleys, and no instance 

 of Its breeding has come under my notice within- the 

 last ten years (about which time ago Mr. W. Peterkin 

 tells me a nest of young was found at Whitewell) until 

 the present year, 1884, when on May 16th, the old birds 

 were shot, and four young, a fortnight old, taken, on 

 Longridge Fell from a Magpie's nest of a former season. 

 A little later also, in the same locality, four eggs were 

 taken, and the old bird shot, from another nest. Mr. 

 W. A. Durnford says that a few pairs nest annually 

 near Barrow, and that birds are often shot in winter, 

 they being unusually plentiful in that of 1875 (ZooL, 

 1876). The Long-eared Owl feeds very largely on birds, 

 and in the stomach of one which Mr. W. Naylor had 

 brought to him on March 30th, 1880, was a Thrush of 

 some kind, almost whole. Mr. H. Ecroyd Smith (Pwc. 

 Histor. Soc. of Laiic. and Cltcsli., 1865-66) also says 

 that in a number of pellets he examined near a tree 

 in which was a nest of young, in May, 1865, a large 

 proportion contained the skulls of young House- Spar- 

 rows. 



