A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



observing its movements for the space of half 

 a minute, when it flew off with an undulating 

 flight to a considerable distance and was seen 

 no more.'] 



86. Kingfisher. Akedo ispida, Linn. 



Resident and generally distributed wherever 

 there are streams or other suitable waters. 

 Owing to their bright plumage they are 

 frequently shot without object or reason, and 

 the nests are often robbed, so that they get 

 considerably thinned out. They have evi- 

 dently been very frequent at times. Mr. 

 A. R. Cocks tells us (Zoologist, 1891, p. 154) 

 that a local birdstuffer at Great Marlow had 

 nearly 100 specimens to stuff in the year 1 890. 

 Mr. Cocks also informs us (in litt.) that they 

 have become much rarer through persecution, 

 but that they have to a certain extent re- 

 covered their numbers since they have been 

 less persecuted in recent years. 



87. Hoopoe. Upupa epops, Linn. 



This beautiful bird has been obtained a 

 good many times. A female was shot at 

 Stewkley April 24, 1862 (Jones, Field, 1862, 

 p. 387). A male was shot in April 1888 

 near Wendover, in one of the driest parts of 

 the Chiltern Hills (Odling, Field, 1888, p. 

 536). One was killed at Lavender Park 

 farm November 20, 1889 (Tomalin, Field, 

 1889, p. 777). On April 27, 1859, one 

 was seen at West Wycombe, and one, prob- 

 ably the same specimen, shot two days after 

 at Eyrsham (Roby in the Field, 1859). O 

 May 3 one was wounded at Burnham Grove 

 naar Maidenhead (Thomas Ingatton). One 

 was caught alive in 1861 or 1862 near 

 Eton. In 1828 one was shot near the Eton 

 Wick public-house (Birds of Berks and Such). 

 In 1857 one was shot at Aston Abbots. 

 Others have been killed at Chesham and 

 Buckingham. It is certainly a pity that 

 almost every specimen seen in England falls 

 to the gun, and science is hardly benefited 

 thereby. Whether the hoopoe would, if 

 unmolested, soon become a regular breeding 

 species, as has been said by ornithologists, we 

 doubt very much. There would have been 

 plenty of time to develop into a regular breeder 

 before every one shot the hoopoe down, but 

 in spite of assertions to the contrary, there is 

 no proof that the hoopoe was more frequent 

 in olden times than it is now. Where this 

 bird breeds it is well known, and yet Dr. 

 Muffet, who died in 1590, wrote : ' Houpes 

 were not thought by Dr. Turner to be found 

 in England, yet I saw Mr. Serjeant Goodrons 

 kill one of them in Charingdon Park, when 



he did very skilfully and happily cure my 

 Lord of Pembroke at Ivychurch ' (see Harting, 

 Handbook of British Birds, p. 115). The old 

 MS. in Dinton Hall shows an excellent 

 figure of the bird, said to be cock and hen, 

 the latter however being evidently a young 

 bird. The following note is added : ' Hoop 

 or dung bird. Shot by William Lee of Ford 

 1760. The vulgar in country esteem it a 

 forerunner of some calamity. It visits these 

 islands frequently but not at stated seasons, 

 neither does it breed with us.' Now this is 

 exactly what is the case now, for the instances 

 in which it has bred are few and far between 

 and not the rule. A regular breeding bird is 

 never considered ' by the vulgar in country 

 to be a forerunner of some calamity.' 



88. Cuckoo. Cuculus canorus, Linn. 



Very frequent. Eggs are known to us as 

 having been taken in nests of hedge-sparrows, 

 reed-warblers and pipits in Buckinghamshire, 

 but we have had no time for egg-hunting. 



89. White or Barn-Owl. Strix flammea, 



Linn. 



(The more exact name of the west European 

 barn-owl, or, as it is correctly called, white 

 owl in opposition to the typical S. flammea, 

 with a brown under-surface is S. flammea 

 kirchhoffi, Brehm. See Novit. Zool, 1800, p. 



533-) 



Breeds commonly and is found throughout 

 the year. Though nesting in various sorts 

 of buildings, especially old towers, the majority 

 are probably now nesting in this county in 

 hollow trees, and we have so often flushed 

 them, at all seasons, from thick plantations of 

 young trees, that we think it may excep- 

 tionally nest there perhaps in old nests or 

 rabbit holes, as long-eared and little owls do. 

 Clark Kennedy mentions as many as nine 

 eggs being taken from a tree in Burnham 

 Beeches ; and near Tring as many as eleven 

 eggs have been found in one nest. In April 

 1893 Mr. Grossman found a bird of this 

 species sitting on one of its own eggs and two 

 stock dove eggs in a hole in a tree at Newton 

 Blossomville. 



90. Long-eared Owl. Asia otus (Linn.). 



Locally found over the county, but only in 

 wooded parts and especially in fir-plantations, 

 where it deposits its eggs in old nests. 



91. Short-eared Owl. Asia accipitrinus (Pallas). 



Frequently called the woodcock owl. A 

 common visitor in autumn and winter, though 

 very rare in some years. 



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