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ROUGH NOTES ON DERBYSHIRE ORNITHOLOGY, 



1904-1905. 



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



(Continued from ' The Zoologist,' 1905, p. 62.) 



1904. 



Addendum. — Mr. A. F. Adsetts informs me that a Little Auk, 



Mergulus alle (L.), was shot on the River Trent, near Donington 



Park, on Nov. 24th, 1904, by a keeper named Hallett. Some six 



or seven specimens have been previously recorded for the county. 



1905. 



From Jan. 16th to 28th the weather was very severe, and the 

 thermometer fell several times nearly to zero. The 16th was an 

 especially bitter day, for, although no snow fell till night, a 

 piercingly cold wind was blowing all day. Most birds suffered 

 much during this time, but the Dippers were apparently quite 

 indifferent to the cold, and were singing merrily on Jan. 26th. 

 On March 12th bees were noticed at work for the first time. 



Of late years the Stonechat (Pratincola rubicola) has be- 

 come a very scarce visitor to the county, and it was with much 

 pleasure that I recognized a hen bird perched on a dead thistle 

 close to the River Dove, near Rocester, on March 13th. Curiously 

 enough, a cock bird was observed at Thorpe, eight or nine miles 

 higher up the Dove Valley, on the 18th. As a rule, our summer 

 migrants hardly ever put in an appearance before the first days of 

 April, but on March 20th two Sand-Martins were noticed at the 

 cutting just above Clifton Station, where many of these birds 

 breed, and a week later about a dozen birds were to be seen 

 there ; but the main body did not arrive till the 30th. On the 

 18th Wrens were busy building their nest by the roadside at 

 Clifton, and a nest of young Thrushes was found in an evergreen 

 hedge at Stramshall (Staffordshire) on March 31st. Even these 

 were not the earliest nests of the season, for Mr. W. T. Mynors 

 came across a nest of the Brown Owl which contained young in 

 down on Feb. 23rd, while another was found with one young 



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