NOTES FROM LANCASHIRE. 189 
The young Marsh Harrier referred to in ‘ The Zoologist’ for 
1879 (pp. 18, 14), died on July 26th, 1872, probably through some 
neglect, as | wasaway atthe time. Its plumage was as follows :— 
Top of head white, bases of feathers white ; general colour dusky, 
almost black; tail-feathers very slightly tipped with ‘chestnut, 
the new feathers sprouting also thus tipped, all being white at 
the base; the inner web of the outermost feather clouded with 
chestnut from white portion to tip. Legs feathered to tarsal 
joint. Some feathers on nape irregularly margined with chestnut 
and white. Secondaries very slightly tipped with light chestnut, 
white at base. Primaries and tertials not so tipped. Primaries 
white at base, shading off through cloudy black to chestnut 
(especially on inner webs) to black upper part. Greater wing- 
coverts tipped with chestnut. Lesser wing-coverts not so. Most 
of small feathers clothing cubitus so much bordered with white 
and chestnut as almost to obliterate the black. 
In 1879 I had a very interesting morning’s ramble on May 
10th, leaving home for Pendle Hill at two a.m. A quarter of an 
hour later, whilst still quite dark, Snipe were going “ tick-tick,” 
and a few Peewits calling. Two Snipe were drumming at the 
foot of the hill at half-past two, and a Blackbird or two called as 
I went up the gully called the “‘ Big Nick” at three. Blackbirds 
and Ring Ouzels both breed among the furze-bushes here, some- 
times in the bushes, and sometimes on the ground under them, 
and it is absolutely necessary, in order to identify nests properly, 
to see the birds. Curlews were calling soon after three, the dawn 
streaks just appearing, but I did not see them, as they were on 
another part of the hill. 
In the middle of a smart shower of snow I disturbed a 
Golden Plover from its nest of four eggs, which turned out 
to be a week sat. She flew away with just one whistle when 
she had got twenty yards from the nest. I waited twenty 
minutes in hiding for her, but she only reappeared—though 
I heard her whistling a long way offi—when I was packing the 
eggs by the side of the nest. She was very shy, and kept thirty 
or forty yards off, flying a long way when I moved towards her. 
These birds are more common on the Bleasdale fells, the other 
side the valley; Altham saw a nest on Parlick May 25th, with 
two young in down and a chipped egg. There were no Ring 
Ouzels to be seen, nor were there any Warblers in the Measley 
