A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE man named Saunders, living in High Street, Lough- borough. He also remembered a white blackbird taken out of a nest at Knighton Hall, fifty or sixty years ago, by a boy named Norman, who kept it alive. Mr. W. J. Horn, writing to me in 1 906, says : ' On II Feb. 1904 one was singing on the wing, and I saw in a cage on a cottager's wall, a few days ago, a blackbird with a white head this was bred in my garden.' 6. Ring-Ouzel. Turdus torjuatus, Linn. Of uncommon occurrence, rarely observed except in late autumn and spring, and does not appear to remain to breed now, as formerly. Nevertheless the late Dr. Macaulay wrote that a nest and eggs of this bird were taken in the parish of Mowsley by Mr. C. C. Macaulay on 27 April, 1891, but I did not see it, nor do I know of another instance. Harley wrote that in his day this bird was sparingly met with in the forest of Charnwood, affecting the un- cultivated lands, intersected by rough stone walls, near the village of Whitwick, where it bred, and that as autumn drew on the old birds with their young left the bleak hills and retired to the enclosures abut- ting thereon, where they fed on the fruit of the wild brier, elder, &c., shortly afterwards disappearing for the winter. He was told by a friend that it occasion- ally bred also in Market Bosworth Park. Some local specimens are preserved in the museum, 5 of which may be mentioned a female shot by Mr. H. S. Davenport, at Ashlands, on 15 April, 1889 ; a fine male specimen, shot by Mr. Charles Smith at Thed- dingworth on 29 March, 1890, seen in company with a number of lapwings ; and a female from Dunton Bassett 23 Oct., 1891. 7. Wheatear. Saxicola oenantke (Linn.). Locally, Fallow-chat, Gosshatch. 6 A summer migrant, sparingly distributed and occa- sionally breeding, recorded by Harley, who met with its nest and six eggs many years ago near Bardon. Mr. H. S. Davenport found a nest with five eggs in a drain-pipe on the road at Skeffington in May, 1875. It is certainly rare, and the last one seen by the writer was at Whetstone, about 1898. Mr. W. J. Horn was informed that it nested at Barle- stone in 1895 and 1896, and that the nest and eggs were found. Mr. Horn has seen a few odd birds in April and May, and again in August and September, the earliest occurrence being one, 6 April, 1904, at Lubenham. 8. Whinchat. Pratincola rubetra (Linn.). Locally, Meadow-chat, Utick. A summer migrant, generally distributed ; prob- ably double-brooded and nesting in suitable positions throughout the county and not far from the town of Leicester. The earliest date which Mr. W. J. Horn has of its nesting is 13 May, 1895, when he found a nest at Thornton Reservoir containing five eggs slightly incubated. He states that it breeds freely on Bur- bage Common, near Hinckley. Mr. Horn con- siders furze-covered commons and railway embank-
- See Browne, op. cit.
' The female and young, according to Arthur B. Evans, D.D. Ltictttenbire Proverbi. ments its favourite nesting sites, but has also found its nest in open grass fields and roadside banks. 9. Stonechat. Pratincola rubicola (Linn.). Locally, Utick (Blackcap, by error). Resident, but sparingly distributed, and indeed a much rarer bird than the migratory whinchat, a fact remarked upon by Harley, who considered it in his day especially rare in winter, and stated that at that season it left its ordinary habitat of ' the whin-covered moor and wild for the cultivated field and hedgerow.' He appears to have met with a brood of young with their parents about Charnwood Forest in May, 1849. Mr. W. J. Horn mentions the following occurrences : On 9 March, 1 894, one seen at Stoke Golding ; 25 Nov., 1894, a pair on Burbage Common, and 1 6 Oct., 1895, one on Burbage Common. 10. Redstart. Ruticllla phoenlcurus (Linn.). Locally, Firetail, Redtail. A summer migrant, sparingly distributed and breed- ing ; sometimes double-brooded. Probably not so common as formerly, when, according to Harley, it nested, amongst other places in Leicester, at the castle and abbey. Local specimens are represented in the museum, the last one a male presented by Mr. John Choyce, of Marston Hall, Hinckley, which he states was shot at Potters Marston, on 15 April, 1892. C. and T. Adcock record that in the spring of 1887 they found a nest at Thurnby, in the far corner of a barn, on a ledge under the roof, behind a stone. It was about the size of an orange and appeared to have been thrown there. They secured the male bird, the young at that time being in the down, and a few days later were sur- prised to find another pair of redstarts helping the female to rear her young ones. Mr. W. J. Horn has noted its appearance every spring on the Upper Welland, where two or three pairs nest in the pollard willows, and where he has taken the eggs ; on 22 April, 1893, he heard one singing on the wing. 11. Black Redstart. Ruticilla tilys (Scopoli). Locally, Blackstart. A rare winter visitant, the only one recorded for Leicestershire being an adult male in winter dress caught by a bird-catcher (apparently near Belgrave) on 19 Oct., 1888, and sold to Mr. F. F. How, of Leicester, who presented it to the museum. 7 12. Redbreast. Erithactu rubecula (Linn.). Locally, Robin. Resident and common ; breeding in all sorts of situations, usually very early, sometimes very late, and being double or even treble-brooded. There prevails an impression, not confined to Leicestershire, that the female robin is brown ; needless to say it is the young, which, until the moult takes place, is without the red breast. Patched and white varieties occur, and one was presented to the museum as a skin en 1 8 Jan., 1886, by Mr. E. Woodfield, having been shot at Thurmaston some years previously. It was wholly of a pure white except the wings, some few primaries of which were of the normal colour. Mr. W. J. Horn writes in 1906: 'Nesting operations 118 7 Browne, op. cit. p. 49.
