A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



man named Saunders, living in High Street, Lough- 

 borough. He also remembered a white blackbird 

 taken out of a nest at Knighton Hall, fifty or sixty 

 years ago, by a boy named Norman, who kept it 

 alive. 



Mr. W. J. Horn, writing to me in 1 906, says : ' On 

 II Feb. 1904 one was singing on the wing, and I 

 saw in a cage on a cottager's wall, a few days ago, a 

 blackbird with a white head this was bred in my 

 garden.' 



6. Ring-Ouzel. Turdus torjuatus, Linn. 



Of uncommon occurrence, rarely observed except 

 in late autumn and spring, and does not appear to 

 remain to breed now, as formerly. Nevertheless 

 the late Dr. Macaulay wrote that a nest and eggs of 

 this bird were taken in the parish of Mowsley by 

 Mr. C. C. Macaulay on 27 April, 1891, but I did not 

 see it, nor do I know of another instance. Harley 

 wrote that in his day this bird was sparingly met 

 with in the forest of Charnwood, affecting the un- 

 cultivated lands, intersected by rough stone walls, 

 near the village of Whitwick, where it bred, and that 

 as autumn drew on the old birds with their young 

 left the bleak hills and retired to the enclosures abut- 

 ting thereon, where they fed on the fruit of the wild 

 brier, elder, &c., shortly afterwards disappearing for 

 the winter. He was told by a friend that it occasion- 

 ally bred also in Market Bosworth Park. Some local 

 specimens are preserved in the museum, 5 of which 

 may be mentioned a female shot by Mr. H. S. 

 Davenport, at Ashlands, on 15 April, 1889 ; a fine 

 male specimen, shot by Mr. Charles Smith at Thed- 

 dingworth on 29 March, 1890, seen in company with 

 a number of lapwings ; and a female from Dunton 

 Bassett 23 Oct., 1891. 



7. Wheatear. Saxicola oenantke (Linn.). 



Locally, Fallow-chat, Gosshatch. 6 



A summer migrant, sparingly distributed and occa- 

 sionally breeding, recorded by Harley, who met with 

 its nest and six eggs many years ago near Bardon. 

 Mr. H. S. Davenport found a nest with five eggs in a 

 drain-pipe on the road at Skeffington in May, 1875. 

 It is certainly rare, and the last one seen by 

 the writer was at Whetstone, about 1898. Mr. 

 W. J. Horn was informed that it nested at Barle- 

 stone in 1895 and 1896, and that the nest and eggs 

 were found. Mr. Horn has seen a few odd birds in 

 April and May, and again in August and September, 

 the earliest occurrence being one, 6 April, 1904, at 

 Lubenham. 



8. Whinchat. Pratincola rubetra (Linn.). 



Locally, Meadow-chat, Utick. 



A summer migrant, generally distributed ; prob- 

 ably double-brooded and nesting in suitable positions 

 throughout the county and not far from the town of 

 Leicester. 



The earliest date which Mr. W. J. Horn has of 

 its nesting is 13 May, 1895, when he found a nest 

 at Thornton Reservoir containing five eggs slightly 

 incubated. He states that it breeds freely on Bur- 

 bage Common, near Hinckley. Mr. Horn con- 

 siders furze-covered commons and railway embank- 



* See Browne, op. cit. 



' The female and young, according to Arthur B. Evans, D.D. 

 Ltictttenbire Proverbi. 



ments its favourite nesting sites, but has also found 

 its nest in open grass fields and roadside banks. 



9. Stonechat. Pratincola rubicola (Linn.). 



Locally, Utick (Blackcap, by error). 



Resident, but sparingly distributed, and indeed a 

 much rarer bird than the migratory whinchat, a fact 

 remarked upon by Harley, who considered it in his day 

 especially rare in winter, and stated that at that season 

 it left its ordinary habitat of ' the whin-covered moor 

 and wild for the cultivated field and hedgerow.' He 

 appears to have met with a brood of young with their 

 parents about Charnwood Forest in May, 1849. Mr. 

 W. J. Horn mentions the following occurrences : 

 On 9 March, 1 894, one seen at Stoke Golding ; 

 25 Nov., 1894, a pair on Burbage Common, and 

 1 6 Oct., 1895, one on Burbage Common. 



10. Redstart. Ruticllla phoenlcurus (Linn.). 



Locally, Firetail, Redtail. 



A summer migrant, sparingly distributed and breed- 

 ing ; sometimes double-brooded. Probably not so 

 common as formerly, when, according to Harley, it 

 nested, amongst other places in Leicester, at the 

 castle and abbey. Local specimens are represented 

 in the museum, the last one a male presented by 

 Mr. John Choyce, of Marston Hall, Hinckley, which 

 he states was shot at Potters Marston, on 15 April, 

 1892. C. and T. Adcock record that in the spring 

 of 1887 they found a nest at Thurnby, in the far 

 corner of a barn, on a ledge under the roof, behind 

 a stone. It was about the size of an orange 

 and appeared to have been thrown there. They 

 secured the male bird, the young at that time 

 being in the down, and a few days later were sur- 

 prised to find another pair of redstarts helping the 

 female to rear her young ones. Mr. W. J. Horn has 

 noted its appearance every spring on the Upper 

 Welland, where two or three pairs nest in the 

 pollard willows, and where he has taken the eggs ; on 

 22 April, 1893, he heard one singing on the wing. 



11. Black Redstart. Ruticilla tilys (Scopoli). 



Locally, Blackstart. 



A rare winter visitant, the only one recorded for 

 Leicestershire being an adult male in winter dress 

 caught by a bird-catcher (apparently near Belgrave) 

 on 19 Oct., 1888, and sold to Mr. F. F. How, of 

 Leicester, who presented it to the museum. 7 



12. Redbreast. Erithactu rubecula (Linn.). 



Locally, Robin. 



Resident and common ; breeding in all sorts of 

 situations, usually very early, sometimes very late, and 

 being double or even treble-brooded. There prevails 

 an impression, not confined to Leicestershire, that the 

 female robin is brown ; needless to say it is the 

 young, which, until the moult takes place, is without 

 the red breast. Patched and white varieties occur, 

 and one was presented to the museum as a skin en 

 1 8 Jan., 1886, by Mr. E. Woodfield, having been 

 shot at Thurmaston some years previously. It was 

 wholly of a pure white except the wings, some few 

 primaries of which were of the normal colour. Mr. 

 W. J. Horn writes in 1906: 'Nesting operations 



118 



7 Browne, op. cit. p. 49. 



