BIRDS 



Being an inland county, Nottinghamshire cannot be expected to 

 furnish as extensive a list of birds as one which possesses a coast-line, 

 however small. Nevertheless the following notes will show that it can 

 boast of a rich and varied avifauna, which will compare favourably 

 with that of any other inland county in England. 



The extreme northern part of the county lies very low and is drained 

 by dykes : here the redshank and snipe nest. The forest land to the 

 south of this covers about 100,000 acres, and is some eighteen miles long 

 by seven or eight wide ; a large portion has been converted into farms, 

 but there still remains a considerable area of ancient woodland, largely 

 consisting of fine old oaks, with a sprinkling of birch and an undergrowth 

 of bracken. Many hundreds of jackdaws nest in the hollow trunks of 

 these grand old trees. In several of the great estates comprised within 

 this region Clumber, Welbeck, Thoresby and RufFord are large lakes 

 covered in winter with waterfowl of many species, which being most care- 

 fully protected find here a safe and quiet home with abundance of food. 

 It is no uncommon sight to see over 20 goosanders at one time, and at 

 Thoresby thirty or forty pairs of tufted ducks remain in the spring to breed. 



Coming towards the middle of the county there is in RufFord and 

 Mansfield Forests a large stretch of heather, some 4,000 acres in extent, 

 with here and there patches of fir-trees ; here live the last of the 

 Nottinghamshire black-game, now only a small remnant, but for size 

 and beauty of plumage equal to any in Great Britain. Rainworth 

 waters lie to the south of this tract of heather, and here the tufted 

 duck has nested in numbers since at least as far back as 182030. From 

 these waters, consisting of seven or eight ponds of about 50 acres in 

 total area, they gradually spread over the other waters in the county, and 

 now many scores of pairs breed on other properties. The teal, shoveler 

 and wild duck also nest on these lakelets. 



South of Rainworth are the fine estates of Newstead, Sherwood 

 Lodge, and Bestwood and Annesley Parks, on all of which are many 

 plantations of fir and hardwood trees, and these being most carefully 

 protected form quiet nesting places for many species of birds. In all 

 there are about 26,000 acres of woods in Notts not a large area, but a 

 fair extent for an agricultural county. 



About Nottingham, and thence to the southern boundary of the 

 county, we find much more grass ; there are not so many plantations, but 

 still we find some woods of fair size. This part of the county is rich in 

 warblers and finches, and is also a fair game district, though not to be 

 compared in this latter respect with the forest part, where much more 

 corn and turnips are grown. 



An inland county is always at a disadvantage compared with one 

 possessing a sea-coast, but rivers and streams, especially large ones, offer 



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