80 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries. 



angle, and its body very upright. A pair of kingfishers inhabit 

 the same holt as the nightingales ; the beck runs through it, 

 and they make their nest in the bank. Moorhens also build 

 there ; their nest has been found in a spruce at some distance 

 from the water. A pair of common buzzards used to build 

 year after in a wood just outside the parish boundary, and not- 

 withstanding the plundering of their nests and constant perse- 

 cution they did not desert the locality till about 1888. In 

 November, 1883, a pair was trapped in Hatton. In May, 

 1879, there was a kestrel's nest in the nightingale wood; the 

 keepers had the cruelty to wait till the young were hatched 

 before climbing the tree to take the nest, as they said if they 

 failed to shoot the old birds, at any rate they would not rear a 

 second brood. They uttered a wild plaintive cry when one 

 approached the nest tree, and as it is known they do more good 

 than harm they ought to be spared. I once saw a sparrow-hawk 

 drop a full-grown partridge, which lost a good many 

 feathers but ran off unhurt. A sparrow-hawk once dashed 

 against the window during a sewing meeting. As quick as 

 possible a woman ran out and wrung its neck. On my remon- 

 strating, she said, " If you knew the damage they do amongst 

 our poultry, you would do the same." I had it stuffed. 



Ring doves at one time increased to such an extent, and did 

 so much damage to turnips and cabbages, that after the shooting 

 season the owners of the various estates agreed to shoot them 

 on one fixed evening every week, which diminished their 

 numbers to a great extent. On Oct. i4-th, 1881, a young 

 pigeon, unfledged, fell out of its nest during a gale. 



There are a certain number of wild pheasants, amongst them 

 a white one now and then, but the greater number are reared 

 by hand, the eggs being collected from nests likely to be 

 disturbed, and more obtained by shutting up some of the birds 

 and setting their eggs under barn-door hens. They are brought 

 up like chickens, and remain quite tame till the shooting season, 

 running to the keepers to be fed. They give employment to 

 several men, who take it in turns to sit up all night to watch 

 the coverts and scare away foxes, etc. 



Partridges are far more interesting than pheasants, being 

 more truly wild. Their call note, especially in the evening, is 

 a very pleasant sound. The land rail or corn crake is an 

 occasional visitor; I only remember one summer when they 

 stayed. They seem to me to have become scarcer, or perhaps 

 they prefer limestone to clay, for they were plentiful about 



