A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



[Barbary Partridge. Caccabls petrosa (J. F. Gmelin). 



In April, 1842, a specimen of this partridge was 

 picked up dead at Edmondthorpe, near Melton Mow- 

 bray (Yarrell, Hist. Brit. Birds, ed. 4, in, 121). 

 The late Mr. Widdowson informed me that he had 

 this very specimen in his possession, and it was from 

 this bird that Yarrell's figure of the species was taken. 

 As these birds are often imported it may have been 

 an escaped one.] 



155. Quail. Coturntx communis, Bonnaterre. 



A rare summer visitant. Mr. Babington, writing 

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

 killed one season between Whitwick and Bardon, 

 some years ago, by Mr. Grundy, who kept a wounded 

 bird alive for some time.' Harley wrote : ' Its visits 

 are only irregular and uncertain and appear confined 

 to meadow-lands and fields lying contiguous to our 

 streams. On the banks of the Soar and the meadows 

 abutting thereupon the quail is annually no stranger. 

 It breeds there in small numbers.' He records its 

 occurrence at Cossington, Barrow, Sileby, Thurcaston, 

 and some other villages having low wet meadows, also 

 one captured in the Market-place, Leicester, on 

 i 5 Nov., 1 846, and an example shot on Mr. Win- 

 stanley's estate at Braunstone on 20 Nov. of the 

 s.ime year. Mr. J. Garle Browne, of Leamington, 

 in 1845 killed five quails out of a bevy of nine, which 

 he flushed and marked down close to Husbands Bos- 

 worth, and on 24 Dec., 1856, he flushed one at 

 Edmondthorpe. Mr. H. C. Woodcock, of Rearsby, had 

 a quail which was killed on the railway by the telegraph 

 wires ; he believed the date to have been about 1865. 

 Mr. Davenport mentions that his father shot quail at 

 Tilton in September, 1 867. The late Dr. Macaulay 

 informed me that Mr. R. Symington, of Market Har- 

 borough, shot a quail at Great Bowden in September, 

 1872, which was unfortunately not preserved. Mr. 

 Ingram thought it occasionally bred in the Vale of 

 Belvoir, as he had shot immature birds there with 

 others. According to the late Mr. Widdowson it has 

 often been found and has bred near Melton Mowbray, 

 and I saw, in 1 885, in the Melton Mowbray Museum, 

 a case containing a pair of quails, a chick, and eggs, 

 labelled : ' Presented by Plumpton Wilson, January, 

 1847.' 



Mr. Stephen H. Pilgrim, of Hinckley, informed me 

 that Mr. B. H. C. Fox, of Lutterworth and a party, 

 when shooting over a farm at Gilmorton on 7 Sept., 

 1885, bagged three quails, and further writes: 'There 

 was, I believe, only one bevy. The value of the note is, 

 I am afraid, a good deal detracted from by the addition 

 Mr. Fox makes, viz. : " I have always accounted for the 

 quail being there by reason that they either escaped 

 from or were turned out from Bitteswell Hall." I saw 

 him the other day and he told me that Major Jary, of 

 Bitteswell Hall, said that two or three had been 

 turned out or escaped from there, but there is no 

 doubt that the young birds of the bevy were bred on 

 the farm at Gilmorton, which would, I think, be about 

 l miles from Bitteswell.' The late Dr. Macaulay 

 reported having seen in the possession of Mr. John 

 Capell a quail which he shot at Mowsley, on 17 July, 

 1891. Mr. S. H. Pilgrim reported one shot at 

 Harwell on I Sept., 1893, by Mr. P. Evershed. 



A fine male caught on the Cosby Road near Whet- 

 stone was brought to me in 1902 and is in the 

 museum. 



146 



156. Corn-Crake or Land-Rail. Crex pratensis, 



Bechstein. 

 Locally, Daker-Hen. 



A summer migrant, generally distributed and 

 breeding ; remaining sometimes throughout the winter. 

 A nest containing nine eggs was found in July, 1883, 

 in a field close to the main thoroughfare by Aylestone 

 Mill and was purchased for the museum. Mr. W. J. 

 Horn writing in 1907 states that this species is less 

 common in the Market Harborough district than 

 formerly. 



157. Spotted Crake. Porzana maruetta (Leach). 

 Sparingly distributed ; probably breeding. Mr. F. 



Bouskell has a specimen which he obtained at Knighton 

 in July, 1883. Mr. C. H. Gadsby, of Loughborough, 

 has two which were found on the Midland Railway 

 half way between Barrow and Loughborough, near 

 the river, having been killed by the telegraph wires 

 in the early part of September, 1889. Mr. G. Frisby 

 writes from Quorn: ' I saw one that had been shot in 

 the autumn of 1906 in the meadows near the River 

 Soar.' 



[Little Crake. Porzana farv a (Scopoli). 



Very rare, and the only record I have is that 

 furnished by Harley, who states that one was shot 

 near the town of Leicester in January, 1841, and 

 was afterwards eaten.] 



158. Water- Rail. Rallus aquaticus, Linn. 

 Locally, Velvet Runner. 



Resident, but sparingly distributed, and from its 

 skulking habits, is thought to be much rarer than it 

 really is. Specimens have been received from Nar- 

 borough, Lutterworth,Wymeswold, and near Leicester 

 within the past few years. The late Dr. Macaulay 

 informed me that Mr. Farnham shot one out of 

 a turnip-field at Quorn on 7 Nov., 1889. The 

 Rev. G. D. Armitage received a water-rail on 21 Nov., 

 1892, which had been killed by flying against the 

 telegraph wires near Broughton Astley. It occurs 

 now and then at the Leicester Sewage Farm, where 

 Mr. G. Collins shot one in 1894, which he gave to 

 the museum. Mr. O. Murray-Dixon writes from 

 Swithland, under date 18 Nov., 1906. : 'A short 

 time ago I had one that was taken from a cat.' 

 Mr. W. J. Horn, writing in 1907, records the follow- 

 ing: Several shot on the Welland in November, 1 900, 

 by the Rev. C. J. Cartwright, of Weston-by- Welland; 

 in November, 1900, several seen and one shot by 

 himself near Ashley ; on 2 Dec., 1906, he saw one on 

 a small brook near his house. 



159. Moor-Hen. Gallinula chkropus (Linn.). 

 Locally, Water-Hen. 



Resident and common ; breeding quite close to 

 Leicester. Mr. G. Frisby writes that on 19 June, 

 1906, he found a nest containing thirteen eggs at 

 Beaumanor Park. Mr. W. J. Horn writes in 

 1907: 'It breeds on the Folly Pond in Market 

 Harborough.' 



1 60. Coot. Fulica atra, Linn. 

 Locally, Bald Coot. 



Resident, but unevenly distributed. Mr. Babing- 

 ton (Potter, op. cit. App. p. 69) reports it from Groby 

 Pool and Barret Pool. One was shot by Mr. J 



