AN INTRODUCTION TO 



THE NATURAL HISTORY 



OF DERBYSHIRE 



The following series of papers will, it is hoped, give some idea of the 

 natural history of Derbyshire as far as it has been investigated at present. 

 The general features of the Geology of the county have been dealt with 

 so fully in the article on that subject, that it is unnecessary to add any- 

 thing with regard to them here. 



A perusal of the various lists of the fauna will show that some 

 departments have been much more thoroughly worked than others, and 

 that there is still a wide field of exploration open to the observer. 



Ornithology of course appeals more or less to every sportsman, and 

 most dwellers in the country take some interest in birds, while in 

 Entomology the Lepidoptera invariably attract some workers ; but with a 

 few exceptions but little has been done in other departments since the 

 time when Edwin Brown published his list of the fauna of the Burton 

 district. There are, however, signs of the gradual growth of interest in 

 the subject, and the publication of the present lists can hardly fail to be of 

 great help in bringing together for the first time a good many scattered 

 and hitherto unpublished records and also in pointing out fresh fields for 

 research. 



It may be well to note that the next decade or two will probably 

 see considerable changes in certain parts of the county which must 

 necessarily have some effect upon the fauna. Steps are at present being 

 taken to put a stop to the unrestricted discharge of sewage into our rivers 

 in many places, while the upper part of the Derwent watershed has been 

 acquired for the purpose of ensuring a permanent water supply to four of 

 the large towns of the Midlands. This latter scheme is of such 

 importance that it deserves a few words to itself. 



In 1899 the conflicting claims of the corporations of Leicester, 

 Derby, Sheffield, and Nottingham, and the county of Derby to the water 

 rights of this district were reconciled by the constitution of a water 

 board on which all were represented, and powers were obtained from 

 Parliament to purchase the necessary land and water rights in the Derwent 

 and Ashop valleys and to construct the required works. The drainage 

 area chosen for this purpose was the watershed of the Derwent and its 

 tributaries above Bamford, an area of 50 square miles, of which 42 are 

 in Derbyshire and the remaining 8 in Yorkshire. This is a tract of the 

 most varied character, ranging in height from 2,070 to 585 feet above 

 the sea level, and consisting largely of sparsely populated moorland. 

 Here it is proposed ultimately to form a series of five reservoirs, three of 



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