234 



NOTES ON BIRDS FROM LANCASHIRE. 



Extracted from Letters of the late James Cooper. 



REV..H, A. MACPHERSON, M.A., M.B.O.U., Etc., 

 Author of the ' Visitation of Pallas' s Sand-Grouse to Scotland' etc. 



The North of England has always been fortunate in possessing 

 a supply of field naturalists drawn from the working classes and 

 pursuing their studies in the face of many difficulties. Of the 

 number, none perhaps should be remembered more worthily than 

 the late James Cooper. Born at Cockermouth in 1792, he long 

 earned his bread as a cotton spinner in the neighbourhood of 

 Carlisle. His natural tastes were furthered and developed by the 

 late Mr. T. C Heysham, under whose instruction he became 

 a successful collector of birds and lepidoptera. James Cooper con- 

 tributed a few notes to the ' Zoologist.' Some other results of his 

 experience have been published in Mr. Murray Adamson's valuable 

 work, ' More Scraps about Birds.' The present paper supplies some 

 hitherto nnpuhlished information, relating to Lancashire. In 1840 

 James Cooper left Carlisle for Preston, travelling on foot with his 

 family as far as Lancaster. At Preston he obtained work at his 

 trade, but the intervals of his leisure were given up to collecting. 

 Mr. Heysham, who had always taken a lively interest in Cooper,, 

 and once offered to start him in business, which he declined, con- 

 tinued to employ Cooper as a birdstuffer, no doubt from a wish to 

 render him pecuniary support. Consequently, some letters passed 

 between the two, and the following particulars have been extracted 

 from Cooper's letters as not unworthy of preservation. 



'Preston, September 27th, 1840. — ... I have seen few insects 

 or birds ; of the latter I had a shot at a Greenshank \Totanus 

 canescens\ two or three of which I saw about four miles below 

 Preston on the banks of the Ribble. I stuffed a young Pigmy 

 Curlew \Tringa siibarq2iata\ shot near Lytham. Bar-tailed Godwits 

 \Limosa lappottica\ and young Ruffs and Reeves \J\fachetes pugnax\ 

 are sometimes hanging in the fish-market.' 



'Preston, January 30th, 1842. — Of the rarer birds got here the 

 most noted is a specimen of the Hoopoe [ Upupa epops] and one of 

 the Wood Sandpiper \Totamis glareola], a Grey-backed Shrike 

 [^Lanius excubitor\ and a Little Auk \MergHbis alle\ or two. 

 A specimen or two of the Purple Sandpiper \Tringa striatd\ has 

 occurred. The Grey Plover \_SquataroIa helvetica] I find remains 

 here all the winter. I saw a few the other day, but could not get 

 a shot at them. They are very light-coloured.' 



Naturalist, 



