XVIII. 



NOTES ON BIEDS OBSERVED IN HERTFORDSHIRE DURING 



THE YEAR 1896. 



By AxAjf F. Ckossman, F.L.S. 



Read at Watford, 23rd March, 1897. 



I HATE not many notes to report on birds which have actually 

 occurred in our county in 1896, inasmuch as I find the greatest 

 difficulty in obtaining correspondents. Most people appear to think 

 that I only want records of rare birds. This, however, is not the 

 case, as I am only too glad to get notes on any birds, whether rare 

 or common, that are seen in Hertfordshire. A thorough know- 

 ledge of the avifauna of the county can only be obtained by such 

 assistance, as it is impossible for one man to carefully study every 

 district. 



To try to make up for such shortcomings with regard to birds 

 observed in 1896, I have been searching various books with a view 

 to bringing before the Society old records of birds formerly seen 

 in Hertfordshire, but which have never been recorded in our 

 * Transactions.' Amongst other books I studied ' The Birds of 

 Berks and Bucks,' by the late Captain Clarke Kennedy; and 'The 

 Birds of Middlesex,' by Mr. J. E. Harting, who is an honorary 

 member of this Society. From the former I gained much informa- 

 tion about birds which had up to the date of publication of the 

 book — viz. 1868 — occurred at the Tring Reservoirs; and from the 

 latter, which was published in 1866, I obtained a few records of 

 birds which had been found at Elstree Reservoir. All the in- 

 formation taken fi'om these two books, and from any others which 

 I have examined, I have incorporated in my present paper. It 

 seems to me that a recorder to a Natural History Society should do 

 his best to bring before such Society not only records of recent 

 events or discoveries, but should also from time to time endeavour 

 to search up all old records which have not appeared in the 

 ' Transactions ' of the Society, in order that if anyone in time to 

 come shoiild wish to bring out a fauna of the county, he would 

 have before him all the materials for doing so without having also 

 the trouble of searching through a vast amount of literature and 

 obtaining possibly very small results. This is what I have been 

 endeavouring to do, and I only hope that my efforts may be of 

 assistance to some future author of a book on the birds of Hert- 

 fordshire. 



Although I have no record of any bird new to our county list 

 having been obtained in 1896, I have the pleasure of directing 

 your attention to four birds, which, although they occurred or are 

 reported to have occurred in Hertfordshire some years ago, do not 

 appear to have been mentioned in our ' Transactions.' I can give 

 very little information about these birds, except the fact that they 



