NOTES FROM LANCASHIRE. 191 
In the possession of Mr. W. Johnson, of Prestwich, I saw a 
very fine Bittern, which had been shot at Huntley Brook, near 
Bury, on December 15th. 
On March 30th, 1880, Mr. Naylor had brought to him a 
Long-eared Owl, which a keeper had shot in mistake for a hawk, 
a Blackbird, by its notes of alarm, having called his attention to 
it. In its stomach was a bird of the Thrush family almost whole. 
All the Owls except the Barn, which is now most jealously: pro- 
tected by the farmers, and which it is thought unlucky to 
disturb, are ruthlessly shot down by the keepers, and they are 
rarely met with. A Barn Owl was once seen by some keepers to 
strike a young Pheasant about some coops in the late afternoon, 
but it left it where killed, and did not carry it away; it was 
thought it mistook it for a mouse. I was told a story of a 
Tawny Owl, which would seem to indicate much intelligence. It 
was observed several times to alight on the top of a Pheasant 
coop in the evening, and to flap its wings about so as, apparently, 
to disturb the old bird inside. On her moving the little ones, as 
usual, all ran from her, and were picked up by the waiting Owl 
outside and devoured. In the end of course it paid the penalty. 
On the western side of the valley here there is strict Pheasant 
preserving, and for the benefit of all egg-devouring birds, those 
of hens poisoned with strychnine are laid in conspicuous 
places. The havoc among Jays, Magpies, Rooks, and Carrion 
Crows is fearful. We are beginning to consider the Magpie a 
rare bird. 
On May 8th walked over Pendle, near Pendleton Hall, heard 
the first Wood Warbler of the spring, and saw a Carrion Crow’s 
nest, but did not climb up to it. On the slope at the foot 
of the hill the bird’s-eye primrose was just coming into flower. 
At Deerstones took a nest of the Ring Ouzel with four eggs. 
Deerstones is the only rock on Pendle, and its ledges are some- 
times used by the Kestrel for its nest. On a boulder at the foot 
of the rock are two depressions resembling a pair of long feet in 
shape, and the country people have a tradition that they are the 
footprints of his Satanic majesty, or, as they call him, “ th’ owd 
lad.” A dog Fox and a lot of whelps were killed here in the 
winter. 
May 9th. Spent this day on the moors near Todmorden, 
which separate Lancashire and Yorkshire. A single House 
