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ROUGH NOTES ON DERBYSHIRE ORNITHOLOGY 



1900-1902. 



By the Rev. Francis C. R. Jourdain, M.A., M.B.O.U. 



Before resuming these notes, it may be as well to put on 

 record two incidents omitted from my last paper (Zool. 1900, pp. 

 428-431). Two Whimbrels and a single Curlew, which had haunted 

 a bleak hill-top near Swinscoe for a day or two, were killed on 

 April 30th, 1899. This was on the Staffordshire side of the 

 River Dove, and is the only recorded instance in which the 

 Whimbrel has been killed in Staffordshire, although Mr. R. H. 

 Read saw a small flock in Sept., 1886. A Water-Rail's nest was 

 found at Sudbury with three eggs, at the end of July in the same 

 year. 



1900. 



An extraordinarily early arrival of Fieldfares was re- 

 ported by Mr. J. Henderson from the high ground between 

 Ashburne and Buxton. Small flocks were seen here by Sept. 

 6th, and a week or so later others were noticed at Bradley and 

 Ashburne. This is the only occasion on which I have known 

 these birds to arrive in the county before October. A young 

 Lapwing which was sent to A. S. Hutchinson for preservation, 

 from near Melbourne, was a pale buff or cream-colour all over, 

 with the exception of a few white feathers. Later in the year 

 another beautifully-feathered cream-coloured bird was caught 

 alive on the sewage farm at Egginton, but unfortunately was not 

 preserved ; and other light-coloured individuals were seen, but 

 not secured (G. Pullen). A Black Tern was killed in the late 

 summer at Etwall, and a Great Crested Grebe shot at Osmaston- 

 by-Ashburne. 



A Corncrake was reported (' Field,' Jan. 5th, 1901) to have 

 been shot at Clifton on Dec. 26th, but it is quite possible that 

 the bird may have been a Water-Rail ; a gentleman who saw the 

 bird assured me that this was the case. Up to Christmas the 



