A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



[Bar-tuled Godwit. Limosa lapponica (Linn.). 



Finding this bird recorded by Mr. Babington as 

 having been shot near Swarkeston, I, thinking that 

 this place was in the county, included the note in my 

 list, published in the Zoologist, 1886, p. 331. As 

 Swarkeston is, however, in Derbyshire, it is the latter 

 county which must lay claim to this record. The 

 late Dr. Macaulay, writing under date 19 Feb., 

 1 892, reported one taken in a snare on the Sewage 

 Farm, Beaumont Leys, on whose authority cannot 

 now be discovered, hence this must ever remain a 

 doubtful record.] 



185. Black-tailed Godwit. Limosa belgica (]. F. 



Gmelin). 



A rare spring and autumn visitant. On the 

 authority of Mr. (the Rev. Arthur ?) Evans, of 

 Market Bosworth, Harley recorded a specimen shot 

 near Market Bosworth, and a second at Osbaston. 

 He said further that it was erroneously described by 

 Mr. Evans, in one of our oldest local papers, as the 

 ' red-breasted snipe,' or ' brown snipe ' of Jenyns and 

 Y.irrell, and I record the fact lest this note of the 

 ' red-breasted snipe ' should crop up at some future 

 time and cause it to be added to the Leicestershire 

 fauna. There is a specimen in the museum, in sum- 

 mer plumage, marked 'Leicestershire, 1869,' but I 

 am by no means sure that it is a local example. A 

 specimen, in nearly adult summer dress, was shot by 

 Mr. Thomas Beck, of Newtown Linford, at the 

 reservoir, Bradgate Park, in August, 1887, which he 

 has since presented to the museum. 



1 86. Curlew. Numenius arjuata (Linn.). 



An accidental straggler from the coast. Mr. Bab- 

 ington (Potter, op. cit. App. 69) said : ' Shot at 

 Ben's Cliff; now at Rothley Temple.' Harley 

 wrote : ' Before the Forest of Charnwood was en- 

 closed this wader was very plentifully diffused over its 

 uneven surface.' The museum donation-book re- 

 cords the gift, on 2 Oct., 1865, by Mr. H. B. Cham- 

 berlain, of a curlew shot at Desford. On 16 Aug., 

 1887, the late Dr. Macaulay saw one at Saddington 

 Reservoir. A fine young male was shot out of a 

 ditch by a small spinney at Arncsby, on I Nov., 1887, 

 by Mr. A. Langton, and presented to the museum, 

 being the only authentic local specimen, the 1865 one 

 having disappeared. Mr. A. Dalby saw a curlew at 

 Castle Donington in July, 1894, and as this is the last 

 note appearing by him, it should be known that he 

 particularly stated, ' All birds mentioned are from the 

 Leicestershire side of the Trent.' 



Mr. C. Marriott told me in 1907 that he had seen 

 specimens more than once during the past twenty 

 years in the meadows bordering the Swift at Cotes- 

 bach. 



187. Whimbrel. Numenius phaeofus (Linn.). 



An accidental straggler from the coast. ' One shot 

 near Charnwood Heath ' (Potter, op. cit. App. 69). 

 Harley wrote : ' The whimbrel occurs occasionally 

 in sparing numbers, as for instance in the meadows 

 about Loughborough, at Bosworth, and elsewhere in 

 the county. Killed near Leicester 23 April, 1856.' 



1 88. Black Tem. Hydrochelidon nigra (Linn.). 



An occasional straggler from the coast, chiefly in 

 spring ind autumn. Mr. Babington (Potter, op. cit. 



App. 70) wrote : ' The black tern frequently 

 occurs in the vicinity of our rivers and pools during 

 the summer months.' The late Dr. Macaulay re- 

 corded (Mid. Nat. 1882, p. 80) that one was shot at 

 Saddington Reservoir in December, 1865, by Rev. A. 

 Matthews, and was in his collection. A black tern 

 was shot by Mr. W. A. Heap, of Melton Mowbray, 

 on 4 Aug., 1884, as it was flying about a ballast-hole 

 filled with water, about two acres in extent, close to 

 Melton. Mr. Heap said it kept darting at the water 

 as swallows do, and every time it brought out a small 

 fish (stickleback or minnow). Mr. Edward Bidwell, 

 of East Twickenham, informed me that he bought a 

 specimen in Leicester, which was said to have been 

 killed in the Abbey Meadow many years ago. Among 

 the museum specimens are two adult mounted ex- 

 amples which were shot near Belgrave, 24 April, 

 1886, out of a flock of over forty. Dr. Macaulay 

 reported two adult black terns on Saddington Reser- 

 voir on 2 June, 1887, which were seen and identified 

 by the Rev. A. Matthews, who watched them for 

 over an hour. A most interesting example, an adult 

 in change to winter dress having a white forehead, 

 face, and throat, a partially black head, and a grey 

 breast thinly barred with white was shot by Mr. R. 

 Henfield on a flooded meadow at Nailstone, in Sep- 

 tember, 1888, and presented to the museum. A 

 young bird in the plumage of immaturity i.e. with 

 forehead, face, throat, and remaining underparts pure 

 white ; head and hind-neck black ; and with wing- 

 coverts and some of the secondaries broadly marked 

 with light-brown was shot in the Abbey Meadow 

 during the first week of October, 1888, and passed 

 into the possession of Mr. F. F. How, of Evington 

 Street, Leicester. 



Mr. O. Murray-Dixon shot an immature bird in 

 September, 1904, and Mr. G. Frisby saw one, also at 

 Swithland Reservoir, 4 April, 1906, and writes that 

 they are rare but regular visitants to the reservoir 

 during the spring and autumn migrations. Mr. W. J. 

 Horn writes in 1907 : ' On 3 May, 1903, I watched 

 for some time through my glasses a single bird of this 

 species in a flooded meadow near Lubenham.' 



[White-winged Black Tern. Hydnchelidon leucoptera 

 (Schinz). 



A rare straggler, in spring, summer, and sometimes 

 in autumn. Harley related that on 24 May, 1852, 

 while driving close to Groby Pool, he observed a 

 pied-coloured tern skimming over the surface of the 

 water in pursuit of Tipuiidae and small dragon-flies. 

 He was of opinion that the specimen referred to was 

 either 5. leucoptera or S. fuliginosa, and not S. nigra, 

 especially as S. fuliginosa had occurred on the Trent in 

 May, 1852, coincident in point of time with his pied 

 tern. The late Dr. Macaulay told me that Stafford, 

 the water-keeper at Saddington Reservoir, described 

 to him a white and black bird evidently a tern 

 which he saw there on 13 June, 1883, and Dr. 

 Macaulay thought this must have been H. leucoptera, 

 because one shot three days before on one of the 

 Norfolk Broads was in company with another. I 

 would remark, however, that both observers may have 

 been correct in seeing a white and black tern, and yet 

 it need not follow that it was the white-winged black 

 tern in either case, the immature black tern being 

 pied, as is also the adult in winter. Again, I should 

 be chary of claiming this rare bird for the county.] 



152 



