The Zoologist — February, 1871. 2469 



Ornithological Notes from North Lincolnshire. 

 By John Cordeaux, Esq. 



(Continued from Zool. S. S. 2393.) 



November and December, 1870. 



Grmj Wagtail (Motacilla boarula). — November 1st. First 

 appearance. 



Stonechat. — November 2nd. Great numbers of stonechats have 

 visited these marshes during the autumn : they are females, young 

 birds, with a sprinkling of mature males. Some few have remained 

 to winter here, and these I see are all in pairs and mature birds : 

 one pair have attached themselves to my sheep on the turnips, 

 where I have seen them almost every day up to the end of the year : 

 they have all the tameness and familiarity of the redbreast. A 

 very frequent perching place is on the top of a turnip-net stake or 

 on the handles of the men's tools left sticking in the ground. 

 From these stations they fly down to examine the fangs of the 

 freshly-pulled bulbs for the larvse or eggs of various insects, and 

 are usually accompanied in their search by a pied wagtail and two 

 pipits. The terribly severe weather of ihe last fortnight in the year 

 must have tried them severely, yet so far they look in good health 

 and condition ; but as the soil at the root of the turnips is frozen 

 almost directly they are dragged from under the snow, the birds 

 must have hard work to obtain a full supply of food. Directly the 

 men commence throwing the bulbs together, preparatory to cutting 

 them, the stonechats and wagtails alight on the heap and search it 

 over, and it is marvellous how they succeed in escaping the almost 

 constant shower of falling bulbs. 



Snotv Bunting. — November 2nd. First seen. A flock of about 

 one hundred in the Great Cotes marshes. I saw hundreds of these 

 little birds (provincially known as ' Norway sparrows ') on the 

 sand-hills at Spurn on the 17th. There had, I was told, been large 

 arrivals within the week. 



Brownheaded Gull. — Numerous in the marshes and on the 

 Humber through November: they have, however, almost entirely 

 left the district since the commencement of the severe weather in 

 December. I have on two or three occasions during the autumn 

 seen these gulls perched on rails and gates. 



Wigeon. — November 2nd. Some large mixed flocks on the 

 Humber. 



SECOND SKEIES — VOL. VI. 1 



