BIRDS 



Derby, in whose magnificent collection they were preserved till they passed 

 by bequest to the custody of the city of Liverpool in 1851. 



Duck decoying is now almost extinct in Lancashire. In former days 

 it was carried on in several localities ; but Hale, on the Mersey, the seat 

 of the Ireland-Blackburnes, is the only place where a decoy still continues 

 to be worked. It is provided with five pipes, and has been operated for over 

 150 years. The chief species that are captured in it are mallard and teal, 

 with a fair proportion of wigeon in most years. Fowlers, on the other hand, 

 are numerous, and are successful in securing every season thousands of scoter, 

 scaup, mallard, curlews, geese, and dunlins by means of douker or fly-nets. 

 The former are suspended a foot or two over the birds' feeding grounds 

 between tides, in diving down to which they get entangled by the neck and 

 drowned in the rising water. The latter, often of great length and some four 

 feet in height, are set on the sands athwart the track of the birds hastening 

 to their feeding banks from which the sea has just retreated. Vast numbers 

 of teal and snipe are also taken in horsehair snares, known as ' panties,' set in 

 lone spots in grassy marshes, and on prepared and baited places when the 

 ground is snow-covered. The ignoble skylark-fowler employs the usual 

 clap-net. Dr. Leigh's History of Lancashire, which contains numerous quaint 

 observations on natural history, has the following interesting note on the 

 ' fowling ' of mallard without their capture : ' but the most remarkable thing 

 of the Wild Ducks is the way of feeding them at Bold in Lancashire. Great 

 quantities of these breed in the summer season in Pits and Ponds within the 

 Demesne, which probably may entice them to come into the Moat near the 

 Hall, which a person accustomed to them perceiving, he beats with a stone 

 on a hollow wood vessel ; the Ducks answer to the sound, and come quite 

 round him upon an Hill adjoining to the Water. He scatters corn amongst 

 them, which they take with as much Quietness and Familiarity as Tame 

 ones ; when fed they take their flight to the Rivers, Meers, and Salt-marshes.' 



The latest list of birds enumerated as British contains 475 species ; but 

 of these 72 have been disallowed as not sufficiently authenticated. Those, 

 therefore, with a good title to the designation number only 403. Of this 

 total 269 are entered in the following list as having been observed in 

 Lancashire, so that only 134 have not yet favoured us by residence or visit. 

 Of the 269 Lancashire birds, 136 nest with us as residents (93), or as summer 

 visitors (43). The majority, just over a half (69), of these are passerine birds, 

 while larine, limicoline, picarian, and accipitrine species form the bulk of the 

 remainder. Winter sojourners or migrants making a short stay on their autumn 

 and spring passages number jj : 46 being anserine or limicoline. The 

 balance of 56 are stragglers and occasional visitors, the greater number (48) 

 belonging to anserine, larine, and limicoline species. 



1. Missel-Thrush. Turdus viscivorus, hinn. 3. Redwing. Turdus iliacus, \J\nn. 



Locally, Stormcock, Shirley. A common winter and spring visitor, fre- 

 Common throughout the county, but more quenting lower grounds than the fieldfare, 

 abundant year by year. Often frequents shrub- 

 beries and orchards throughout the winter. 4. Fieldfare. Turdus pilaris, Linn. 



2. Song-Thrush. Turdus musicus, Linn. An autumn and winter visitor, often in large 

 Met with everywhere and apparently increas- flocks in the Mersey Valley and on the lower 



ing in numbers. Fells. 



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