ROUGH NOTES ON DERBYSHIRE ORNITHOLOGY
1900-1902.
By the Rev. Francis C.R. Jourdain, M.A., M.B.O.U.
Before resuming these notes, it may be as well to put on record two incidents omitted from my last paper (Zool. 1900, pp. 428–431). Two Whimbrels and a single Curlew, which had haunted a bleak hill-top near Swinscoe for a day or two, were killed on April 30th, 1899. This was on the Staffordshire side of the River Dove, and is the only recorded instance in which the Whimbrel has been killed in Staffordshire, although Mr. R.H. Read saw a small flock in Sept., 1886. A Water-Rail's nest was found at Sudbury with three eggs, at the end of July in the same year.
1900.
An extraordinarily early arrival of Fieldfares was reported by Mr. J. Henderson from the high ground between Ashburne and Buxton. Small flocks were seen here by Sept. 6th, and a week or so later others were noticed at Bradley and Ashburne. This is the only occasion on which I have known these birds to arrive in the county before October. A young Lapwing which was sent to A.S. Hutchinson for preservation, from near Melbourne, was a pale buff or cream-colour all over, with the exception of a few white feathers. Later in the year another beautifully-feathered cream-coloured bird was caught alive on the sewage farm at Egginton, but unfortunately was not preserved; and other light-coloured individuals were seen, but not secured (G. Pullen). A Black Tern was killed in the late summer at Etwall, and a Great Crested Grebe shot at Osmaston-by-Ashburne.
A Corncrake was reported ('Field,' Jan. 5th, 1901) to have been shot at Clifton on Dec. 26th, but it is quite possible that the bird may have been a Water-Rail; a gentleman who saw the bird assured me that this was the case. Up to Christmas the
