OLIVER V. aplin: a visit to rainworth lodge. 197 



years ago ; the Knot, in summer dress, was shot by the pond side, 

 and a Gannet was caught by a Fox, doubtless after a sharp tussle. 

 The next morning, driving back from Mansfield, we went out of our 

 way to visit a bit of original woodland, a part of Birklands at Berry 

 Hill. A real old English forest, with scattered oaks, a few Scotch 

 firs, and open glades with plenty of bracken, among which we saw a 

 pair of Red-legged Partridges ; oak scrub in places. Later in the 

 day we drove over Mansfield and Clipstone Forests. Ascending 

 along the cart-tract through the heather to Ratcher Hill, as the pony 

 took it easily over the soft springy soil, we saw a Wheatear and some 

 Whinchats ; and hereabouts in August, when the bloom of the 

 heather threw a purple flush over what was brown enough now, we 

 came upon a Ring Ouzel, a bird which occasionally breeds there. 

 A little further on, at Sunrise Hill, a Stonechat sat ' chatting ' on a 

 sprig of gorse; and just below, from a patch of recently-burnt ground, 

 up got two Grey Hens, their grey tints contrasting well with the 

 warmer brown as they skimmed low over the heather to drop near a 

 patch of gorse. These were well worth seeing, for the old stock of 

 forest Black Game is getting exceedingly scarce, and you might 

 search for days without seeing a bird. There is a fine pair in the 

 collection at Rainworth. Vicar's Dam, a large pond at the bottom 

 of a hollow, terminating at one end in a large bed of rushes, held 

 nothing by reason of the presence of fishermen. On a former visit 

 I saw a Tufted Duck and two Little Grebes, while from a pole-trap 

 on a sharply-rising bank a Sparrow Hawk, flapping wildly, dangled 

 at the end of the chain ; at the foot of the pole lay the remains of 

 two Cuckoos, which, with Nightjars, often fall victims to these 

 deadly contrivances. We passed on down some water-meadows. Whin- 

 chats swarming under a warm sheltered bank, and turned towards 

 home. A pair of Red-legged Partridges were seen on Clipstone 

 Forest, and from the broad arable fields on our homeward way the 

 cries of breeding Pewits resounded on all sides. A sandy lane 

 brought us into the road near a cutting of the Great Northern Rail- 

 way, where the Sand Martins have an extensive colony. A lingering 

 party of eight Fieldfares were feeding in a field by the side of the 

 lane, a rather late date (April 26th). On reaching home we found 

 Mr. W. Eagle Clarke had arrived, and the following day's ramble 

 was in his company. 



Wishing to gain some idea of the number of breeding pairs of 

 Tufted Ducks and Shovellers, we determined to make a complete 

 tour of the ponds during the day. The Wash Dyke and ' L' pond 

 were taken first. In some boggy ground here grows the little 

 Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia)^ of insectivorous pro- 



July 1887. 



