Natural History. 91 



Ibs., another 46 Ibs., the remainder from 18 to aolbs. each, and 

 sold at 6d. per Ib. -, at Killingholme 100 salmon were caught 

 in one tide.' That curious fish the burbolt, a freshwater cod, 

 is common in the Trent and other rivers ; the barbel also is 

 plentiful, and grows to a large size ; we have known six taken 

 with a line and rod in a little over the hour, the collective 

 weight of which was 42-^ Ibs. 



There are districts in Lincolnshire which require careful and 

 scientific examination before we can form a correct estimate of 

 the existing fauna and flora. Such are the low-lying flats and 

 warp islands at the junction of the Trent, Ouse, and Humber, 

 where the Avoset nested as recently as about 1840,* and the 

 rufF in 1871. Then there are the commons and warrens in 

 the north-west, near the Trent, the habitat of many rare and 

 interesting plants which thus far have escaped the ban of 

 cultivation. Here also nest, or have recently nested, the hen- 

 harrier and short-eared owl, sheld-duck, shoveller, teal, and wild 

 duck, stone curlew, rufF, redshank, snipe, dunlin, and little 

 grebe j and at Twigmoor, as well as at Manton Common, 

 thousands of black-headed gulls. The great woodlands from 

 Wragby southward to Bourn, and about Horncastle, the last 

 haunt of the wild cat, pine marten, and kite, would well repay 

 a close investigation ; also the fenny flats at the head of the 

 Wash, and the estuary itself, the home of the seal, and in the 

 autumn and winter still the chosen retreat of innumerable 

 wild fowl ; here too in the summer we have seen flights of 

 various waders and scoter, which from some cause or other 

 have not joined in the spring migration of their fellows to 

 breeding grounds fifteen hundred miles away within the 

 Arctic circle. 



Of the present aspect of the shire, its rich fertility and 

 picturesque scenery we have said little ; let such as care to 

 estimate its agricultural wealth follow the wold road from 

 Barton-on-Humber, above Caistor, and through Tealby and 

 Market Stainton to Horncastle, at the season when the wide 

 expanse of the hill country is ripening to the harvest. View 

 the unbounding prospect just south of Pelham's Pillar, first 

 northward across the continuous range of the Limber and 

 Brocklesby Woods, and south-east over the rolling uplands to 

 beyond Croxby and Binbrooke, every yard of which is in the 

 highest cultivation, under corn, turnips, and artificial grasses 



* Handbook of Yorkshire Vertebrata, Clarke and Roebuck, p. 72. 



