BIRDS 



evidence collected Mr. Storer is convinced that 

 the birds could have been nothing else but Syrrhaptes 

 paradoxus. 



150. Black Grouse. Tetrao tetrix, Linn. 



Locally, Blackcock (male), Grey Hen (female). 

 No longer met with in this county. Mr. Babington, 

 writing in 1842 (Potter, op. cit. App. p. 68), said : 

 ' Near Charnwood Heath, Sharpley, &c., in tolerable 

 numbers till the last two years. They are now nearly 

 extinct.' Harley records its occurrence in Charnwood 

 Forest and at Whitwick. Harley appears to have last met 

 with the species in the spring of 1850. Mr. J. B. Ellis 

 writes : ' Now extinct ; used to live in large woods by 

 BensclifF.' Sir G. Beaumont informed the late Dr. Mac- 

 aulay that he remembered killing black game in Charn- 

 wood Forest about 1847 or 1848, and during the next 

 ten years he shot several ' grey hens ' in South Wood, 

 near Coleorton. The late Mr. Alfred Ellis, in his 

 Notes about Birds, published for private circulation in 

 1868, wrote: 'Some years since I had the great 

 pleasure of a day's shooting with the late Mr. Gisborne, 

 and as we strolled over the heathery waste we flushed 

 several of these birds, and one grand old cock got up 

 so close under the walls of the monastery that we 

 could not shoot him, if we had wished, without 

 danger to the windows.' 



151. Red Grouse. Lagopus scoticus (Latham). 

 Formerly occurring but now extinct in the county. 



Mr. Babington wrote in 1 842 (Potter, op. cit. App. 

 p. 68) : 'A brood at Tin Meadows, twenty years 

 ago, some of which were shot by Mr. Grundy, when 

 in search of black game. Since then Mr. Gisborne 

 attempted to introduce the bird from Scotland and 

 the Derbyshire moors, but without success, it being 

 unable to bear the dust of the journey, as the game- 

 keeper thought.' Harley wrote : 'Well-nigh become 

 extinct,' and again : 'The red ptarmigan occurs in 

 the county in much about the same ratio, as regards 

 its distribution and its numerical diffusion, as its 

 congener the black grouse. This species of ptarmigan, 

 moreover, appears to affect alike the same locality 

 Charnwood Forest a situation as yet the only one 

 known to the author where it occurs in the county.' 

 One was shot by the Rev. J. C. Davenport at Skeffing- 

 ton, in the winter of 1860, whilst it was feeding on 

 some hips on a hedge. I saw, circa 1885, a mounted 

 specimen at Noseley, which had been shot there by 

 Sir Arthur Hazlerigg, some years before, whilst it was 

 sitting on a whitethorn eating the haws. It had been 

 previously observed sitting on the top of a large ash 

 tree. 



152. Pheasant. Phasianus cokhicus, Linn. 



Locally, Old English Pheasant, Bohemian Pheasant 



(variety), Ring-necked or Chinese Pheasant. 

 Resident and commonly distributed. The late 

 Major Gregory Knight informed me that he had a 

 pheasant sitting on ten eggs on 12 Sept., 1888. 

 This would, no doubt, be owing to the extraordinarily 

 inclement and late season. It is subject to much 

 variation, owing to the crossing of the original stock 

 with various foreign species, especially with the 

 Chinese ring-necked pheasant, Phasianus torquatus 

 (Gmelin), originally introduced from China some 

 hundred or so years ago, and which has interbred with 



the collarless or 'Old English' pheasant to such an 

 extent that it is now impossible to find either pure, 

 except in China and Asia Minor respectively. What 

 we must now term the ring-necked variety is un- 

 doubtedly the most common. Lord Ferrers has, at 

 Staunton, two hybrids between pheasant and grey hen ; 

 they were bred in South Wood and strayed into one 

 of the Staunton Woods, where the keeper shot them. 

 Sir Arthur Hazlerigg shot at Noseley, some years 

 since, a pure white variety, which I have by his per- 

 mission examined. I saw in the possession of Mr. C. 

 Marriott, ofCotesbach Hall, a mounted hen-pheasant 

 shot at Cotesbach, circa 1898, in complete cock's 

 plumage with the exception of the feathers of the 

 head and the absence of wattles and spurs. Its tail 

 is quite as long as that of a cock. 



153. Partridge. Perdix cinerea (Latham). 



Resident and common. The Leicester Daily Post 

 recorded that just after the great storm of 18 and 

 19 Jan., 1 88 1, a bricklayer captured a partridge in 

 a hole of the damaged roof of a house in Lower 

 Bond Street, Leicester. A still more curious circum- 

 stance is recorded by Mr. Davenport, who wrote on 

 II Dec., 1885 : 'I know of a covey of seven cocks 

 and one hen reared this summer under a hen fowl on 

 Mr. G. V. Braithwaite's estate at Stackley, which now 

 come out of the fields to a whistle and are so tame as 

 to feed out of the hand and perch on the shoulder of 

 the lady of the house.' Writing again on I Feb., 

 1886, he said: 'Those partridges, reduced by one 

 cock, come every morning to be fed, just as they did 

 in September a marvellous sight.' The Leicester 

 'Journal, 27 Jan., 1888, reported that a partridge was 

 observed on the Humberstone Road, near the London 

 and North-Western goods depot, having apparently 

 come over the railway from the direction of Evington. 

 It ran off towards Brunswick Street, where it was 

 caught by Mr. Andrew Birtlcs, of Upper Charnwood 

 Street, who succeeded in throwing his hat over it. 

 The bird was a fine one and in good condition. 

 Mr. Birtles kept it alive for three months, but as it 

 was very wild he had it killed and preserved. Mr. T. 

 Woodcock, of Ratcliffe-on-the-Wreak, informed me 

 on 3 Sept., 1886, that there were three white part- 

 ridges, in a covey of nine or ten, on the Garthorpe 

 estate, near Melton Mowbray ; and Mr. James T. 

 Hincks told me in November, 1887, that there was 

 still an old white one lef^ which was extremely shy 

 and had until then escaped. I saw a curious light 

 sandy variety in the possession of Sir Arthur Hazlerigg, 

 shot at Noseley many years ago. 



An unusual variety was shot at Garthorpe on 

 8 Oct., 1890, and presented to the museum by Mr. T. 

 Crick. The specimen is a female whose general 

 coloration is a dull greyish-white, in which the 

 normal markings can be traced, though faintly. The 

 'horse-shoe' barrings on the breast and flanks are of a 

 faint buff-colour. 



Very small immature specimens are sometimes 

 confounded with the quail, and I shot at Melton 

 Mowbray in September, 1893, a specimen which was 

 at first sight remarkably like one. 



1 54. Red-Legged Partridge. Caccabis rufa (Linn.). 



Resident, but sparingly distributed. The call of 

 this bird is quite different from that of the common 

 partridge. 



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