292 



NOTES on LINCOLNSHIRE BIRDS. 



Eared Grebe at Horncastle, Line. N. — A specimen of the Eared 

 Grebe {Podiceps nigricollis Brehm) was shot at Horncastle Brick-pits on 

 2nd July, the shooter being- afterwards fined by the magistrates, it being 

 the ' close' season. A violent east gale had been raging for four days, and 

 this had doubtless carried the bird more than 20 miles inland from the east 

 coast. — J. Conway Walter, Langton Rectory,- Horncastle, 6th Sept. 1901. 



Bird Enteritis in the Brigg District. — English and French Partridges 

 have been dying round here for the last few weeks of Klein's disease or fowl 

 enteritis. Thousands of game birds, young and old, have already perished. 

 My son, Dennis, pointed out to me this morning a Blackbird of this season, 

 which could not fly, in the garden. On observing and handling it I found it 

 had been a well-developed bird, which was affected with the prevailing 

 disease. It was nearing its end rapidly. During the past few years I have 

 examined hundreds of game birds which have died of it, representative 

 specimens of hundreds of thousands which have fallen before the dire 

 bacilli of this disease. Whether Klein's enteritis and Pasteur's fowl cholera, 

 more commonly called the Orpington disease, are one and the same, I have 

 been unable to settle to my own satisfaction. Both kill in from 24 to 

 48 hours, and sweeping over partridge soil and pheasant preserves will 

 often leave but 5 per cent, of resisting birds behind. Rabbits and even 

 hares die of Pasteur's cholera, but cases are apparently very rare, and only 

 occur when the ground is badly contaminated. This Blackbird is the first 

 case I have either heard of or seen among our smaller birds. The Partridges 

 in this parish have nearly been cleared off by enteritis, and are still dying-. 

 In one case I knew 4,800 Pheasants perished out of 5,000 in less than 

 a week. What the soil would be like after such a visitation is better left to 

 the imagination than described. The Windpipe Gape Worm {Syngamits 

 trachealis Sieb) has been more or less destructive about Broughton, but 

 I have not met with it here. — E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock, Cadney, 

 Brigg, 26th August 1 90 1. 



Golden Oriole at Gainsborough.— I am glad to be able to report the 

 occurrence of this beautiful bird {Oriolus galbula) in my garden. It was 

 first seen on the 3rd of this month (August) by Mr. Gerard d'Abo, of 

 Arnhem ; and as this Oriole is of frequent occurrence in Holland, and is 

 well known to Mr. d'Abo, his record is to be relied on. In further proof, 

 however, the bird was seen again the following day by Miss F. H. 

 Wool ward, of Belton, near Grantham, who was staying with us, and is 

 a practised observer of anything connected with nature. It was flying 

 across the garden, and she had the good fortune to hear its song-, describing- 

 it as ' most beautiful and something- she had never heard before.' 



In 1899, when staying in Holland, I saw the Golden Oriole on the 15th 

 July at Berg-en-dal. It was taking short flights from tree to tree, and 

 uttering-, as I thought at the time, the most beautiful* notes I ever heard 

 given forth by bird — notes utterly distinct from any others, and, once 

 heard, never to be forgotten. 



Seebohm says of it : ' Its voice is marvellously rich and flute-like ' ; and 

 ' it is a pity the song is so short ; for in quality it is scarcely exceeded by 

 the song of anv other bird.' The words he uses to describe the song, ' wheet, 

 li, vee— o,' though, like other verbal attempts of the same kind, they can give 

 little or no idea of it to those who have never heard it, always recall the 

 song to me at once. 



Early on the morning of the 18th of August I heard the bird's call-note 

 close to my room ; and in the afternoon I heard it sing. The song, however, 

 was not the full, beautiful song which so delighted me in Holland; but 

 a mixture of the call-note and rather harsh sounds, with a few clear, rich, 

 flute-like notes. Later in the day my son saw the bird fly across the lawn. 



Xaumann gives the ordinary call-note as ' gyake-vake-yake.' This repre- 

 sents with much accuracy the sounds I heard ; the specific notes being 

 uttered five times (or thereabouts) in succession, and then repeated. — F. M. 

 Burton, Highfield, Gainsborough, 27th August 1901. 



Naturalist. 



