A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 



works may be summarized as follows : In 1789 a very fair list of birds 

 was published by James Pilkington in his View of the present state of 

 Derbyshire, which was practically republished with additional notes by 

 Mr. O. Jewitt in Stephen Glover's History of the County of Derby (1829) ; 

 Mr. J. J. Briggs contributed a long series of notes on Derbyshire orni- 

 thology, with especial reference to the Melbourne district, to the Zoologist 

 from its commencement in 1843 to the time of his death ; and in 1866 

 Mr. A. O. Worthington contributed a list of Repton birds to a hand- 

 book of the Wild Flowers, etc,, of Repton. In 1863 a more important 

 work was published entitled The Natural History of Tutbury, which con- 

 tains a chapter on the birds of the district by Sir O. Mosley, and a careful 

 list of those species which have occurred near Burton-on-Trent by Mr. 

 Edwin Brown. The "Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural 

 History Society for 1892 (p. 176) contains a most interesting reprint of the 

 shooting diary of the Rev. Francis Gisborne of Staveley from 1761 to 

 1784, many of the records in which are of very great interest. Local 

 lists by Mr. G. W. Pullen and F. B. Whitlock appeared in 1883 and 

 1886, and in 1893 tne Biro's of Derbyshire was published. 



i. Mistle-Thrush. Turdus viscivorus, Linn. 

 Locally, Thrice-cock, Storm-cock, Sy-cock, 

 Sedcock ; Holm Thrush (J. J. Briggs). 



This fine bird varies a good deal in numbers 

 from year to year, but is generally distributed 

 and in places quite common. It appears to 

 suffer much in hard winters but soon recovers 

 its position after a mild season. Many of the 

 birds met with in the autumn are immigrants. 



The mistle-thrush is an early breeder : full 

 clutches may be found from the third week 

 in March onward, but the usual time for first 

 broods is from April i to 10. These early 

 nests are often very conspicuous on the leafless 

 trees. They are as a rule placed at the fork 

 of a bough with the trunk. Nests are how- 

 ever occasionally found far out on the hori- 

 zontal boughs of oak trees. In rare instances 

 they have been found quite low down among 

 evergreen shrubs in a garden, as at Shirley in 

 1899. Although naturally a very shy bird 

 the nest of the mistle-thrush is frequently 

 found close to houses, probably for the sake of 

 protection against the magpie (Pica rustled], 

 Many clutches are annually destroyed by 

 these birds in spite of the stout resistance 

 made by the parent birds. The typical nest 

 is lined with dry grasses, but it is not unusual 

 to find nests with a considerable amount of 

 wool in the lining. According to F. B. 

 Whitlock, in the High Peak the nests are 

 sometimes found on ledges of rock (Birds of 

 Derbyshire, p. 24). 



When undisturbed the mistle-thrush will 

 sometimes rear a second brood from the same 



nest. I knew of two cases in which this 

 took place in the past season (1901), both 

 nests being within a few yards of houses. 



The usual clutch in this county consists of 

 four eggs : five are however occasionally, but 

 rarely, found. 



In mild weather the mistle-thrush like the 

 song-thrush may be heard singing in the 

 middle of winter. In December, 1900, a 

 very wet and warm month, these birds were 

 constantly singing in the fields. 



2. Song-Thrush. Turdus musicus, Linn. 



Locally, Throstle. 



The first nests of the thrush may be found 

 long before the hedges have begun to bud. I 

 have seen young birds in the nest at the end 

 of March, but the majority begin to lay about 

 the beginning of April. The eggs show a 

 considerable range of variety in colouring and 

 marking. Some of the handsomest are 

 blotched with reddish brown or chocolate 

 instead of the usual black spots, and between 

 these and the absolutely spotless egg every 

 grade of difference may be met with. The 

 nests are made in a variety of places. Like 

 the blackbird the thrush sometimes nests on 

 the ground, on a bankside or even on the side 

 of a railway embankment, and a nest found 

 on May 29, 1901, was built inside a hay 

 barn and contained five very lightly marked 

 eggs. Curiously enough within a few yards 

 a hen blackbird was sitting on five pale blue 

 eggs in a similar situation. On the higher 

 ground where the hedgerows are replaced by 



122 



