VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE BLACKPOOL DISTRICT 121 



gathered from the fact that the record British grouse bag, consisting of 2,929 

 birds, was made on the Abbeystead range on the 1 2th August, 1915; and before 

 the end of October following the total bag exceeded 1 5,000 birds. 



The northern division is separated from the remainder of the district by 

 the Lune, and its tributary stream, the Wenning, and has Westmorland on 

 its northern boundary. This area is more varied geologically than the other 

 divisions, its scenery being variegated by limestone outcrops, crags and scars, 

 wooded slopes and large tracts of pasture-land. 



Not the least important feature of the district from a faunistic standpoint, 

 is its extensive coastline with its vast expanse of sands and mudflats. These 

 latter are at all times attractive to wildfowl and waders, and during severe 

 spells of weather when the birds are driven from more inland situations to 

 seek the open waters of the foreshore, astonishing numbers of wildfowl assemble 

 and a constant fusiladeis heard from the fowling-pieces of the neighbouring 

 gunnei s. 



It is during spring and autumn, however, when the great waves of migration 

 have set in, that they present their greatest attraction, though the geographical 

 position of the district renders it less favourable as a calling-place for migrants 

 than those of the eastern and southern counties. At such times the numerous 

 estuaries of the Lancashire coast, with their adjoining marshes, covered in 

 parts with a profusion of coarse grass, Sea Thrift. Sea Aster and other saline- 

 loving plants, and teeming with different forms of marine life, afford a congenial 

 resting-place and an abundant feeding-ground for all kinds of shore birds. 



In spring various waders, some showing the pectoral patch of summer, visit 

 the estuaries for rest and food on their journey to the north. In August the birds 

 begin to move south, the birds of the year invariably arriving before their 

 lingering progenitors, and there is a succession of individuals until late in 

 October. The marshes indeed are seldom without signs of bird-life, for even 

 when at times they seem forsaken by ducks and waders there are always small 

 parties of gulls to be seen passing up the rivers and retiiing seaward at night. 

 In summer too one occasionally sees flocks of waders which from some cause or 

 other have failed to join their fellows in the spring migration to breeding-grounds 

 a thousand miles away within the Arctic Circle. 



The almost total lack of rocks on the Lancashire coast accounts for the 

 absence of many common sea birds as breeding species. There is, however, 

 along considerable portions of the coast a belt of shingle amongst which nest 

 the Ringed Plover, the Oystercatcher and, more rarely, the beautiful Little 

 Tern. 



A good deal of information bearing on the local fauna has been published 

 from time to time, much of which is referred to in the excellent series of 

 bibliographies printed in ' The Naturalist ' for 1 884 onwards ; and in ' The 

 Geographical Bibliography of British Ornithology,' by Mullens, Swan and 

 Jourdain (1920). 



There are few noteworthy collections in the district. The Harris Museum, 

 Preston, contains some interesting palaeantological exhibits and a fairly- 

 representative collection of British Birds, as well as the recently-acquired 

 Frohawk collection of eggs, nests and skins. The admirable village museum 



