34 Peacock : Birds of North - West Lincolnshire. 



Sparrow Hawk (Accipiter nisus Linn. Still commonly nesting 

 with us). 



Ruff and Reeve (Machetes pugnax Linn., now rare in any 

 part of the county). 



Redshank (Totanus calidris Linn., nesting- with us still). 



Snipe (GalJinago ccelestis Frenzel, resident and nesting still). 



Jack Snipe (Gallinago gallinula Linn., a winter visitor now). 



Teal (Nettion crecca Linn. Nests on Scotton Common, Nat. 

 Hist. Div. 5, a few miles south of Bottesford Moors). 



Wigeon (Marea penelope Linn. This bird, if imwounded, 

 leaves Lincolnshire in February and March, but in June 

 1898. my brother Max and I put a hen bird off her nest on 

 Scotton Common in a tuft of rushes west of the Duck 

 Pond. It contained 11 cream coloured eg'gs, and was made 

 and lined with most beautiful down, almost as much as 

 I have seen in the case of the Eider Duck. I may also add 

 here that I have met with the Shoveller, Spatula clypeata 

 Linn., locally called the Spoonbill, breeding on Scotton 

 Common too). 



Golden Plover (Charadrius pluvialis Linn. Still common in 

 the winter). 



Green Plover or Pyewipe (Vanellus vulgaris Bech. Common 

 and breeding still). 

 When Thos. L(ockwood) first began to warp Nathanland 

 (a well-known stretch of the common, which still bears this 

 name though it is all arable fields), he took in or embanked 

 about (blank) acres, across the north end of the 114 belonging 

 to my fa(ther) and Mr. Hall. There was a sandhill in it on 

 which grew great furze or whins (as Ulex europceus Linn, is 

 locally called). It was a great place for snakes, as they were 

 safe there (when the other part of the common was flooded, 

 and a great deal of it was under water most of the winter 

 before the enclosure). When the first tide was taken in 

 T(homas) L(ockwood) had several men walking on the top of 

 the banks to be ready to stop it, if any water came through (the 

 recently made embankments). When the water from the Trent 

 had got amongst the furze on the hill the snakes left it and 

 swam to the bank where the men were, who killed them as soon 

 as they got out of the water. Old Thomas Stocks, who was 

 one of the men, told me more than 50 (were killed in this way), 

 and he was always a very punctual (i.e., accurate) man. (The 

 Viper and Common Grass Snake are still found on the commons 



Naturalist, 



