274 Peacock : The Birds of iYorfh-7vest Lindsey. 



formerly found round the Manor House at Bottesford. on sandy 

 soils, but not since 1872. I saw one in the Snake Plantation 

 in 1889. The late George Tacey took me eggs from a nest in 

 the Decoy Plantation, Ashby. They are to be found in Cole's 

 Plantation, too, every season. I shot one there that had a very 

 small lizard (Lacevta vivapara, Linn.), in its crop. It is fairly 

 common in the Eastern Woods. In 1895, the Vicar and I 

 saw a pair of old birds, their newly hatched young, and broken 

 egg sheels in Sweeting Thorns Wood. These birds were very 

 fearless. No bird is better adapted for personal study than the 

 Nightjar. It soon gets to know you, and will come and sit 

 on your hand, or let you stroke it while on the nest. It is a 

 sand-land bird, where there are scattered or no trees, as on 

 Linwood and Scotton Commons. Mr. Burton says, ' One 

 was shot in my next neighbour's garden.' ' W. S.' wrote from 

 Nottingham to ' The Shooting Times ' in reply to a letter of 

 the Vicar's on the Rock Dove : — ' It may also interest the same 

 gentleman to hear that during the second week in September, 

 1900, very late in the evening, I observed a nightjar " hawk'"ng " 

 along the edge of the water between Mablethorpe and Sutton- 

 on-Sea, the tide being about 250 yards out at the time. I was 

 greatly surprised to find the bird in that neighbourhood, as 

 I was under the impression it was never found far away from 

 the vicinity of woods and plantations, which in that locality 

 are conspicuous by their absence. I may mention that just 

 previous to sunset the beach for miles is literally swarmed 

 with millions of insects commonly known as " Daddy Long- 

 Legs " — in fact, so thick were they as they drifted before a 

 rather strong breeze, that they had the appearance of thin 

 wreaths of dark-coloured smoke. Perhaps the fact mentioned 

 above accounts for the bird being seen as stated so far away 

 from its usual haunts.' Though this is quite out of my district, 

 I think it is worth recording in ' The Naturalist.' The Nightjar 

 was on migration no doubt. 



Wryneck. — I have never seen at Bottesford. It breeds 

 in the Eastern Woods. The Vicar has seen it at Cadney, and 

 heard of it at Somersly. Mr. Burton says, ' Heard occasionally 

 in my garden in spring.' 



Green Woodpecker. — Is generally distributed in suitable 

 localities all over the district. It may often be caught feeding 

 on the ground, but at once retires behind a tree till the intruder 

 has passed. In 1887 I shot one while it was engaged in eating 



Naturalist, 



