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NOTES on LINCOLNSHIRE BIRDS. 



Little Auk near Grimsby. — A Little Auk (Merg-it/as alle) was taken at 

 Stallingborough last month, and kindly presented to the Grimsby Society 

 by Mr. C. Wilson. Grimsby. — A. Smith, 5, Cavendish Street, Grimsby, 

 9th March, lqoi. 



Blackbird Eating a Frog. — Owing to the long- drought Blackbirds 

 1 Turdus iiierula), as well as other birds, have found it difficult to find food. 

 They are eating- the sloes before they are ripe, etc., etc. A friend informs 

 me that he saw a Blackbird recently attack a full-grown frog. As he 

 approached, in driving- his carriag-e, the Blackbird took the frog in its bill, 

 and with difficulty carried it over the hedge by the roadside. — J. Conway 

 Walter, Lang-ton Rectory, Horn castle, 6th September 1901. 



Towering and Spiring Birds : North Lincolnshire Observations. 



— On Monday, 7th October 1901, Lord Yarborough had a shooting party at 

 Cadney. At the end of a field a covey of Partridges rose, and with them 

 a Thrush. Several guns were fired at once, and the Thrush was pricked 

 through a large blood vessel in the lungs, towered in the orthodox way, and 

 was picked up quite dead. Towering is always caused by the lungs filling- 

 wit h blood or by an obstruction in the windpipe. On Thursday, 5th 

 December 1901, there was another shooting party. On this occasion 

 a Partridge spired and fell, but rose again as one of the sportsmen was 

 about to pick it up. A bird that has truly towered never rises again. It 

 dies of suffocation at the end of its flight, before it begins to fall. 1 have 

 known a towered bird to go nearly half a mile with the wind. Spiring on 

 the other hand is caused by injuries to the brain; and if the flight is 

 watched narrowly it will be seen to be a true spire or screw twist. Some- 

 times the circle taken is very large, sometimes equally narrow, but always 

 a spiral course. In the majority of cases birds that spire are alive when 

 picked up, and very frequently rise again. I spired a Ring-dove one night 

 by a very long shot, and it escaped after performing most wonderful 

 acrobatic evolutions for fully three minutes. Mr. John Blackbourn, of 

 Goxhill-on-Humber, when out shooting with my hrother, Max, at Bottesford. 

 spired a Lapwing-. It went up till it became invisible to both of them, and 

 they saw no more of it. On the same farm in 1891 I was out with Max 

 when by an overhead shot he spired another Lapwing. When this bird 

 was a mere speck it suddenly ceased going up, and drifting down wind was 

 picked up over half a mile away. A pellet had entered from below and 

 injured the lower and hinder part of the brain. The bird was alive, but 

 only semi-conscious, when picked up. The shoot on 7th October 1901 was 

 notable also for a winged Pheasant seeking refuge in an under-drain. 

 A most unusual thing. All birds, as far as I have been able to learn, 

 tower and spire when they receive those particular injuries which cause 

 these evolutions in game birds, and perhaps I may be allowed, even 

 in such a grave scientific journal as 'The Naturalist,' to add the 

 most laughable case of towering I ever heard of. George Spencer, of 

 Bottesford. my father's late groom, lived as a boy at Wainfleet, on the 

 Wash. When he was a strong- lad he left home one misty October 

 morning on his way to his work. He had not proceeded far when he 

 heard the heavy discharge of a punt gun, but the mist was so thick 

 nothing could be seen twenty yards off. He stood for a minute or two 

 listening- for the swish of wings, but hearing nothing- proceeded on his way. 

 The next thing- he remembered was finding himself flat on his back with 

 rather dazed senses, and then sitting up and finding a fine young wild 

 Goose within arm's length. He took it home, and heard later that a man 

 from the next village had fired into a ' string ' of geese and one had 

 towered. There could be no doubt that this identical bird had dropped on 

 his head. He never knew which he ' had to be most thankful for — a good 

 Goose, or a thick head and strong neck.' — E. Adrian Woodruffe- 

 PeACOCK, Cadney, Brig-g-, 10th December 1901. 



Naturalist, 



