256 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



historical record is left of the Great Bustard in Lincolnshire. 

 The late Sir Charles Anderson, of Lea, in 1874, sent me the 

 following extracts from an old account-book kept by Charles 

 Anderson, at Broughton, near Brigg, from 1669 to 1673 : — 



1670, September 26. To John Hall, brought Curlew .... Is. 

 „ October 23. Item to Thos. Beckett for killing two Bustards 2s. 



Then there is the letter from the great Dr. Johnson, dated 

 January 9th, 1753, to his friend Bennet Langton, of Langton, 

 acknowledging the receiving a parcel of game, amongst other 

 things a Bustard, which he gave to Dr. Lawrence.* 



A letter written to myself by the Kev. Edward Elmhirst, 

 November 29th, 1886, containing personal recollections of Lin- 

 colnshire ornithology, also his communication made to * The 

 Field,' Nov. 27th, 1886, concerning the former nesting of Hen 

 Harriers in the moors near Market Rasen, are amongst the most 

 valuable contributions to the records of county natural history 

 in recent years. 



Of infinite interest also, as throwing light on the past, would 

 be the account-books and records of captures made in the duck- 

 decoys at one period so common in the marsh and fen. We have 

 never met with more than one decoy-book in Lincolnshire, namely, 

 the well-kept register of the Ashby Decoy, near Brigg, worked 

 successfully for so many years by Captain Healey. 



So marvellously abundant were wildfowl before the fens were 

 drained, that we are told a flock of wild ducks has been observed 

 passing along the north and north-east into the east fen in a 

 continuous stream for eight hours together. 



Our next faunal area is very distinct and well marked — the 

 Chalk Wolds — in its greatest length, from Barton -on-Humber to 

 Burgh, fifty-two miles, and the greatest breadth, near Market 

 Rasen, fourteen miles ; the highest point of the range, 549 ft., is 

 near Normanby Clump, and this is the highest land in the county. 

 Before the general enclosure, at the commencement of the present 

 century, the wold was a wild and open region, a rolling upland, 

 more or less intersected by deep valleys. These rounded hills were 

 covered with heather and heaths, coarse rough grasses, like the 

 barren brome, and Aria ctespitosa, the turfy hair-grass, the most 

 graceful if the most useless of all, with thousands of acres together 



* This letter will be found quoted in < The Zoologist ' for 1879, p. 340.— Ed. 



