BIRDS 



100. Tawny Owl. Syrnium aluco (Linn). 

 Locally, Brown Owl, Moll-hawk, Wood Owl, 



Grey Owl. 



Perhaps on the whole rather more common 

 than any other species of owl in Derbyshire, 

 especially where the country is at all hilly and 

 broken. In the plains of the south-east it is 

 less numerous. Great numbers are shot and 

 trapped every year in defiance of legislative 

 protection. The usual number of eggs varies 

 from two to three ; four eggs are very rarely 

 found, although in Northampton five are not 

 uncommonly met with. 



10 1. Little Owl. Athene noctua (Scopoli). 



J. J. Briggs recorded (Zool. p. 644) a speci- 

 men taken in a chimney near Derby and 

 exhibited alive in a local museum on May 17, 

 1843. I* ' s a curious coincidence that in 

 May, 1843, Waterton turned out five of these 

 birds near Wakefield. It is included by Glover 

 in his list. 



l O2. Snowy Owl. Nyctea scandiaca (Linn.). 

 J. J. Briggs observed one near Melbourne 

 on May 20, 1841, but was unable to secure 

 it. Another was shot near Ashover in 1825, 

 and is now in the Rolleston Hall Museum. 

 It is a magnificent bird in pure white plumage, 

 without the usual dark bars and spots. 



103. Eagle-Owl. Bubo ignavus, T. Forster. 

 Glover in 1829 recorded a 'great horned 



owl ' as having been shot at Shardlow re- 

 cently, and J. J. Briggs adds that it was 

 killed in 1828. 



104. Marsh - Harrier. Circus teruginosus 



(Linn.). 

 Locally, Moor Buzzard (Pilkington). 



Pilkington in 1789 recorded marsh harriers 

 from Croxall and Foston, but probably even 

 at that time they were not common. In 

 1891 Mr. E. D. Doncaster was informed that 

 a bird probably of this species haunted a 

 marshy part of the moors between Strines 

 and Agden Bridge (Birds of Derbyshire, 

 p. 125). Three harriers were observed by 

 a keeper on the Bradfield Moors at the 

 beginning of September, 1895 ; and one was 

 shot on the gth by Mr. Waters on Thorn- 

 sett Moor, just over the Yorkshire border, 

 and proved to be a marsh-harrier in the 

 plumage of the first year (J. J. Baldwin 

 Young). 



105. Hen-Harrier. Circus cyaneus (Linn.). 

 Locally, Ring-tail Hawk ( ? ), Pilkington. 



At one time common and widely distributed 

 throughout Derbyshire. There are four or 



five references to it in Mr. Gisborne's shoot- 

 ing diary (1761-84), mostly in the autumn or 

 winter months. Pilkington records it from 

 the moors east of the Derwent and near 

 Derby. Sir O. Mosley, in 1863, says that 

 before the enclosure of the wastes and forests 

 it was common, but ' is now become uncom- 

 mon among us ' ; and Mr. E. Brown gives no 

 local records from Burton. Two eggs were 

 taken from Drakelow in 1870 by Mr. F. 

 Drewry, and are now in the possession of 

 Mr. A. O. Worthington, and the nest has 

 been found by keepers on the moors within 

 the last forty years. A hen was shot in 

 March, 1892, by Mr. Lowe at Unthank 

 Hall (Birds of Derbyshire, p. 127), I flushed 

 a male on Ashbourne Green about 1880, and 

 have been told by the keepers on the North 

 Derbyshire moors that they still occasionally 

 visit them and that birds of both sexes have 

 been shot of late years. 



1 06. Common Buzzard. Buteo vulgarts, 



Leach. 



Formerly an exceedingly common resident, 

 breeding in the larger woodlands, but has long 

 been exterminated. Stragglers have been re- 

 corded from different parts of the county, 

 especially from the moors, which are fre- 

 quently visited by birds of prey. According 

 to Sir O. Mosley the buzzard was so com- 

 mon about 1813 that upwards of twenty 

 might be seen on the wing at the same 

 time over Egginton Heath and Etwall Com- 

 mon (Nat. Hist, of Tutbury, p. 33). Fifty 

 years later they had become scarce, although 

 in J. J. Briggs' time an occasional bird was 

 still trapped in Donington Park. F. B.Whit- 

 lock gives some six or seven instances of 

 occurrences since 1859, the latest of which 

 is that of a bird shot September 28, 1892, 

 near Ashopton. Since then one was shot in 

 Lathkill Dale, July, 1894 (W. S. Fox), and 

 they have been seen several times on the 

 Derwent Moors. 



107. Rough-legged Buzzard. Buteo lagopus 



(J. F. Gmelin). 



An occasional winter visitor, occurring 

 at irregular intervals, especially on the 

 moorlands of north Derbyshire. Several 

 appear to have been trapped in the winter 

 of 1839-40 (Zool. pp. 247, 1247). One 

 was killed near Derby in 1881, another near 

 Kinder Scout in 1884, and two on the 

 Derwent Moors in the autumn of 1891. 

 In March, 1889, one was shot by Lupton 

 the keeper at Monsal Dale, which had killed 

 many rabbits in the neighbourhood. It was 

 a hen bird, and measured 57 inches across the 



135 



