Chapter XXXIII: Appendix: IV (4)

[286]As the instances of the breeding of the merlin, especially under
these circumstances, will always be very rare, I may as well add my
own personal observations. In the spring of 1861 I received three
eggs taken not far from the Knyghtwood Oak, and said to have been
found in the hole of a beech. As I am not in the habit of paying any
attention to the mere stories which are so plentiful, I did not,
therefore, examine them with any attention, and put them aside as
merely kestrel’s. After, however, Mr. Farren’s communication to me,
I looked out particularly for this little hawk, but only once saw it
in the open ground, near Warwickslade Cutting, from whence it flew
up, perching for a moment on a holly, and then making off to the
woods. On June 4th, however, I observed a hen bird fly out of a
hole, about twenty feet from the ground, in an old beech in
Woolstone’s Hill, on the east side of Haliday’s Hill Enclosure.
There were, however, no eggs. On the 5th I went again, and the bird,
when I was about fifty yards from the tree, again flew off. Still,
there were no eggs. I did not return till the 9th, when the nest,
now pulled out of the hole, had been robbed. It was made of small
sticks, and a considerable quantity of feather-moss, and some fine
grass, and in general character resembled the nests of the bird
found by Mr. Hewitson in Norway. In the holes were the bones of
young rabbits, but these had, from their bleached appearance, been
brought by a brown owl, who had reared her brood there in the
previous summer. I afterwards learnt where the three eggs had been
taken in 1861; but there was nothing, with the exception of a few
sticks, in the hole, which was in this case about ten feet from the
ground, and placed also in a beech on the edge of Barrowsmoor. Great
caution, however, must be exercised regarding the merlin’s eggs; for
I am inclined to think that the kestrel, contrary to its usual
practice, sometimes also breeds in the Forest in the holes of trees.
The egg mentioned at p. 264, foot-note, brought to me on June 17th,
1862, I have every reason to believe is a merlin’s, but could not
quite satisfy myself as to the evidence.

[287]For some account of the little owl (_Strix passerina_), see
Appendix III. under the section of Stragglers, p. 314.

[288]Vol. ii. p. 57.

[289]Yarrell, vol. ii. p. 139.

[290]Passed in the twenty-fourth year of Henry VIII., 1532. _Statutes of
the Realm_, vol. iii., p. 425, 426. It should, however, be
remembered that under the term chough was in former times included
the whole of the _Corvidæ_. Shakspeare’s “russet-pated choughs” are
evidently jackdaws.

[291]In Appendix III. is given a list of all the birds hitherto observed
in the New Forest District, as also more special information, which
I thought would not interest the general reader.

[292]Collections for the _History of Hampshire_, by Richard Warner, vol.
iii., pp. 37, 38. A brief list of Hampshire words will also be found
in _Notes and Queries_, First Series, vol. x., No. 250, p. 120. Mr.
Halliwell, in his account of the English Provincial Dialects, p.
xx., prefixed to his _Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words_,
mentions a MS. glossary of the provincialisms of the Isle of Wight,
by Captain Henry Smith, of which he has made use.

[293]The numbers after a plant refer to its numerical place in the
_London Catalogue_, whose nomenclature, and arrangement have been
followed. The English synonyms have been chiefly taken from Smith.

[294]_Scirpus parvulus_ (R. and S.), mentioned by Rev. G. E. Smith as
growing “on a mud-flat near Lymington,” is now extinct. See Watson’s
_Cybele Britannica_, vol. iii. p. 78; and Bromfield, in the
_Phytologist_, vol. iii., 1028.

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Transcriber’s Notes

—Incorporated the errata below (from page ix in the original) into
footnotes (and, if possible, changed in situ).

—Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public
domain in the country of publication.

—Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and
dialect unchanged.

—Corrected page numbers in the index for “Barton Cliffs, geology of”

ERRATA.

Page 33, line 12,
” 55, ” 19, The derivation of Leap as given in the text
is very doubtful.
” 69, ” 1, _for_ which the Bishop of Hippo gives to the
canons of his own order, _read_ the
injunction of their order.
” 127, ” 25, _for_ Ripley _read_ Winkton.
” 192, ” 8, Rere-mouse is derived from the Old-English
_hrere-mus_, from _hreran_ to flutter,
literally the fluttering mouse, the exact
equivalent of the German Flitter-maus.