28 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



grass field near the old toll-bar ; his attention was 

 roused by hearing a strange screaming noise, and on 

 looking up he saw a large hawk, which he could not 

 identify, carrying some large bird; on seeing the 

 man the hawk dropped the bird in the little grass 

 field just above the ash planting near the road leading 

 from Clapton to Tichmarsh. Trowbridge went after 

 the bird, but it got up out of range and alighted in 

 the rough grass by the roadside. The keeper followed 

 it ; it rose within easy distance and he shot it. There 

 had been very heavy gales just before." Mr. Freeman 

 sent the Oyster-catcher to be stuffed at Welling- 

 borough, and was good enough to send it to me at 

 Lilford as a present, a few days before writing the 

 letter just quoted. A Scotchman who was staying 

 at Lilford in the early spring of 1877, and who knew 

 this species well, assured me that he put up six or 

 seven Oyster-catchers from a gravelly spot where 

 cattle drink, on the banks of our river below Lilford. 

 I never personally saw a bird of this species alive in 

 our county, but I have more than once recognized 

 its loud and remarkable whistle overhead after dark. 

 As the Oyster-catcher finds its food of mussels, 

 limpets, sea-worms, and other marine animals princi- 

 pally on our sea-coasts and the shingle-banks of 

 rapid rivers, our Nen valley can present but few 

 attractions to it, and its visits are exceptional and 

 irregular, probably caused, as is the case with several 

 species of more strictly marine habits, by being 

 blown out of their intended course at night, though 

 the valleys of rivers, especially when their course is, 

 roughly speaking, north and south, are no doubt 

 much used as lines of migration by various birds that 

 do not make any permanent stay in them. My 



