ORNITHOLOGY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIEE. 253 



March 25th. A male Pintail, which had been for many days 

 apparently paired with a Wild Duck on our decoy-pool, dis- 

 appeared. 



March 26th. Tawny Owl's nest, with three eggs " hard set," 

 found near Lilford. 



March 29th. Sand Martin first reported near Lilford. 

 April 6th. My falconer wrote :— " Hearing that a strange 

 bird had been shot at Winwick (about five miles from Lilford), 

 on March 26th, I went over, and found it was a young female 

 Peregrine. The shooter told me that he shot a Wood Pigeon, 

 and before he had time to pick it up this hawk came from a 

 great height, and was carrying her prize away when he shot, 

 and slightly injured the first joint of her right wing. She looks 

 well in health, and I think she will get all right in a short 

 time." I purchased this Falcon, and heard from my man on 

 April 13 th that he put her on the wing (in a creance) on the 

 previous day, and that there did not appear to be " much 

 wrong" in her flight. 



April 12th. Willow Wren first reported near Lilford. 

 Mr. G. Hunt wrote to me from Wadenhoe :— " Towards the 

 close of the proceedings (shooting Wood Pigeons over wooden 

 decoy-birds), near Oundle Wood on 11th inst., a female Peregrine 

 came flying high towards me, and seeing my lures, which were 

 placed on a bare newly-sown field, made a terrific stoop at one 

 of them, which was pegged firmly into the ground, and drove 

 her hind claw into the neck of the dummy, knocked it some five 

 yards off its peg, and then flew straight away, and I could see 

 something was hanging from under her tail, and suspect she 

 broke her foot with the violence of the collision. This was an 

 old blue Falcon. I never in all my experience in ' coying' had 

 a similar thing occur. On Easter Sunday I found a nest con- 

 taining two young Stock Doves almost ready to fly; on the 

 previous day I had seen some of this species in flocks— evidently 

 travellers." 



April 14th. A nest of the Barn Owl near Lilford contained 

 four eggs. My decoy-man, who is an East Anglian, and ought 

 to know the birds below mentioned well, wrote : — " I saw twenty 

 Dotterel, Eudromias morinellus, on the 13th and three on the 

 14th April." This is the first well-authenticated occurrence of 

 the Dotterel in Northamptonshire that has come to my know- 



