BIRDS 100. Tawny Owl. Syrnium aluco (Linn). Locally, Brown Owl, Moll-hawk, Wood Owl, Grey Owl. Perhaps on the whole rather more common than any other species of owl in Derbyshire, especially where the country is at all hilly and broken. In the plains of the south-east it is less numerous. Great numbers are shot and trapped every year in defiance of legislative protection. The usual number of eggs varies from two to three ; four eggs are very rarely found, although in Northampton five are not uncommonly met with. 10 1. Little Owl. Athene noctua (Scopoli). J. J. Briggs recorded (Zool. p. 644) a speci- men taken in a chimney near Derby and exhibited alive in a local museum on May 17, 1843. I* ' s a curious coincidence that in May, 1843, Waterton turned out five of these birds near Wakefield. It is included by Glover in his list. l O2. Snowy Owl. Nyctea scandiaca (Linn.). J. J. Briggs observed one near Melbourne on May 20, 1841, but was unable to secure it. Another was shot near Ashover in 1825, and is now in the Rolleston Hall Museum. It is a magnificent bird in pure white plumage, without the usual dark bars and spots. 103. Eagle-Owl. Bubo ignavus, T. Forster. Glover in 1829 recorded a 'great horned owl ' as having been shot at Shardlow re- cently, and J. J. Briggs adds that it was killed in 1828. 104. Marsh - Harrier. Circus teruginosus (Linn.). Locally, Moor Buzzard (Pilkington). Pilkington in 1789 recorded marsh harriers from Croxall and Foston, but probably even at that time they were not common. In 1891 Mr. E. D. Doncaster was informed that a bird probably of this species haunted a marshy part of the moors between Strines and Agden Bridge (Birds of Derbyshire, p. 125). Three harriers were observed by a keeper on the Bradfield Moors at the beginning of September, 1895 ; and one was shot on the gth by Mr. Waters on Thorn- sett Moor, just over the Yorkshire border, and proved to be a marsh-harrier in the plumage of the first year (J. J. Baldwin Young). 105. Hen-Harrier. Circus cyaneus (Linn.). Locally, Ring-tail Hawk ( ? ), Pilkington. At one time common and widely distributed throughout Derbyshire. There are four or five references to it in Mr. Gisborne's shoot- ing diary (1761-84), mostly in the autumn or winter months. Pilkington records it from the moors east of the Derwent and near Derby. Sir O. Mosley, in 1863, says that before the enclosure of the wastes and forests it was common, but ' is now become uncom- mon among us ' ; and Mr. E. Brown gives no local records from Burton. Two eggs were taken from Drakelow in 1870 by Mr. F. Drewry, and are now in the possession of Mr. A. O. Worthington, and the nest has been found by keepers on the moors within the last forty years. A hen was shot in March, 1892, by Mr. Lowe at Unthank Hall (Birds of Derbyshire, p. 127), I flushed a male on Ashbourne Green about 1880, and have been told by the keepers on the North Derbyshire moors that they still occasionally visit them and that birds of both sexes have been shot of late years. 1 06. Common Buzzard. Buteo vulgarts, Leach. Formerly an exceedingly common resident, breeding in the larger woodlands, but has long been exterminated. Stragglers have been re- corded from different parts of the county, especially from the moors, which are fre- quently visited by birds of prey. According to Sir O. Mosley the buzzard was so com- mon about 1813 that upwards of twenty might be seen on the wing at the same time over Egginton Heath and Etwall Com- mon (Nat. Hist, of Tutbury, p. 33). Fifty years later they had become scarce, although in J. J. Briggs' time an occasional bird was still trapped in Donington Park. F. B.Whit- lock gives some six or seven instances of occurrences since 1859, the latest of which is that of a bird shot September 28, 1892, near Ashopton. Since then one was shot in Lathkill Dale, July, 1894 (W. S. Fox), and they have been seen several times on the Derwent Moors. 107. Rough-legged Buzzard. Buteo lagopus (J. F. Gmelin). An occasional winter visitor, occurring at irregular intervals, especially on the moorlands of north Derbyshire. Several appear to have been trapped in the winter of 1839-40 (Zool. pp. 247, 1247). One was killed near Derby in 1881, another near Kinder Scout in 1884, and two on the Derwent Moors in the autumn of 1891. In March, 1889, one was shot by Lupton the keeper at Monsal Dale, which had killed many rabbits in the neighbourhood. It was a hen bird, and measured 57 inches across the 135
