The Zoologist — March, 1870. 2053 



Ornithological Notes from North Lincolnshire. 

 By John Cordeaux, Esq. 



(Continued from Zool. S. S. 1979). 



December, 1869. 



Storm Petrel. — A storm petrel was shot, ou the 1st of Decetaber, 

 by Mr. Gilbert, gamekeeper to Lord De Grey and Ripou, in Dunston 

 Fen, in this county, a distance of thirty miles from the coast : it was 

 flying at a great speed at the time. I have heard of two other 

 occurrences of the petrel inland in Lincolnshire, about the same 

 date. 



Pied Wagtail. — Several heard during the winter up to this date. 

 They frequent the sheep-folds in the turnip-fields, consorting with 

 the meadow pipit, and are usually in close attendance upon the 

 sheep, from whose parasites they probably obtain many a meal: 

 they also search the heaps of freshly-pulled turnips for the grubs 

 and larvae of insects concealed about the roots of the bulbs : from 

 these sources they obtain a constant and plentiful supply of insect- 

 food. 1 am inclined to think that the greatly increased cultivation 

 of the turnip during the last twenty years in this district, and the 

 system of folding sheep upon them during the winter, has supplied a 

 source of insect-food not otherwise available, and offers an induce- 

 ment to the wagtails to remain through the winter. It is only during 

 the last fifteen years that the turnip has been extensively cultivated 

 in our marsh district, and previous to this time the wagtail was 

 unknown as a winter resident. I seldom (unless in very severe 

 weather) see them during the winter except about the sheep-folds. 

 In the early spring, when a supply of insect-food is brought to the 

 surface by preparing the land for the seed, the wagtails betake 

 themselves to the freshly-broken soil, and their numbers are then 

 augmented by large arrivals from the south. I have remarked 

 (Zool. S. S. 1G69) on the absence of this species during the winter 

 of 1868-69, when, in consequence of the dry summer, the turnip crop 

 throughout this district, and over a great part of England, was an 

 almost total failure. 



January, 1870. 

 Kitliwake Gull. — January 1. I received two of these gulls this 

 morning, captured in the North Sea, having got entangled in the 



