198 Peacock: The Birds of North- West Lindsey. 



occasion he had 'scores of records for the Little Auk, both from 

 within and far more inland than the Humber District.' At one 

 time or another the Vicar or I have seen quite thirty different 

 species sheltering- in the river we could not name in their 

 then plumage. A gale from the south-west, which is much 

 more frequent than from the north-east, if it only blows long- 

 enough, brings the birds inland too. This is the case specially 

 in the autumn, but they do not then cling to the river Trent so 

 much as lie up on our inland waters, flashes, and warping" flats. 

 A third cause which brings us rare visitors is a mighty frost or 

 ' long blast ' as we call them locally. When the river Trent is 

 frozen over as far north as Amcott's Hook, and the sea and 

 Humber foreshore covered with ice both at high and low water, 

 the Trent just below the permanent ice-band is generally full 

 of deep-sea fowl hunting for food. These frosts during my 

 memory have always come from the south-west ; the great one 

 of 1895 was n0 exception. As Tar as my observation goes, it is 

 not the cold or roughness of these storms which drives the birds 

 ashore, so much as the failure of their food supply. If a bird is 

 shot as soon as it arrives in the river its gizzard 'is empty. There 

 is yet another reason why this list is not so perfect as it should 

 be. When the rarest birds are driven into the Trent, or are 

 sheltering in cross-drains, reedy becks, or ponds, no living man 

 could take delight in observing them, if he can get into a snug- 

 berth away from the driving- sleet or cutting- wind. 



Want of type specimens, and a fuller knowledge of the sea 

 and shore fowl in the changing forms of their youthful, summer 

 or winter dress would cause the best of men to hesitate in 

 naming a species for certain seen by the naked eye, or through 

 a rain-lashed field-glass, to say nothing of one who is conscious 

 of many defects as an observer and learner. 



These notes refer to a definite locality and its district, of 

 which my home parish, Bottesford, may be called the centre. 

 Divisions 1, 2, 3 S.W., 5 and 7 N., of the Lincolnshire Natural 

 History Map, is the portion of North-West Lindsey I know with 

 a life-long experience. A line drawn from the river Trent south 

 of Gainsborough and Lea through Market Rasen to the Wold 

 escarpment marks off my country distinctly. It contains the 

 northern portions of the Trent and Ancholme rivers. The rocks 

 are Keuper, Rha>tic, Lias, and Oolite, overlaid in places by 

 boulder clay, gravels, water-i arried or blown sand, silt, peat, 

 and Humber alluvium or warp. It is a district rich in water 

 and woodlands, sandy commons and peaty bogs ; and a hundred 



Naturalist. 



