NOTES ON BIRDS OBSERVED IN HERTFORDSHIRE 

 DURING THE YEAR 1891. 



By Henry Lewis. 

 Read at Watford, IWi March, 1892. 



I HAVE no addition to make to our record of Hertfordshire birds, 

 but that is not to be wondered at if we consider the number which 

 have already been recorded, namely 202 species, there having been 

 no increase in the number since our President added one to the list 

 (the sand grouse) in his Notes on Birds observed during the year 

 1888. Mr. Rooper, in his last report, gave an interesting account 

 of the rare birds observed during the severe weather of the winter 

 of 1890-91, thus considerably lightening my labours, but some of 

 these I will again refer to. Many of the records for last year are 

 from the Tring Reservoirs, and for all these I am indebted to the 

 Honourable Walter Rothschild. 



The Green "Woodpecker [Gecinus viridis). — Mr. Rooper reports 

 ha-ving seen a green woodpecker in Cassiobury Park. I am sorry 

 to add that Mr. Spary has had several of these birds to mount 

 during the year. It is a great pity that this useful species, with 

 its loud laugliing call, which is to be heard in the spring, should 

 be destroyed. Mr. Buller also reported having received a green 

 woodpecker and a greater spotted woodpecker {Dendrocopus major). 



The Kjxgfisher {Alcedo Ispida). — It is always a pleasure to me to 

 have the kingfisher reported. A bird of such lovely plumage is so 

 persecuted that it is surprising we have any left in the country. 

 Probably if it were not for the protection afforded it during 

 incubation by some kind persons it would become extinct, at least 

 in some localities. Mr. George Worby, of St. Albans, assures me 

 that he has seen this bird using its feet in a very industrious 

 manner for the purpose of scooping the earth out of a hole or 

 tunnel it had been excavating in the bank with its bill ; so Mr. 

 Rooper is no doubt correct when he states : " Its eggs are 

 beautifully white and transparent (he might have added ' and 

 round or nearly so '), laid upon a nest formed of the cast-up bones 

 of its prey, in a hole scooped out of the bank by the bird for that 

 purpose. It is commonly but erroneously believed that an old 

 rat-hole is appropriated for the purpose." 



The Common Buzzaed (Buteo ridgaris). — Mr. Arthur Spary, one 

 of our local taxidermists, informs me that " a specimen of the 

 common buzzard was shot at Cole Green, close to the station, by 

 Mr. Digby in the last week of the old year " (1891). 



The buzzards are very nearly allied to the eagles, forming a 

 connecting-link between them and the harriers and hawks. Dixon 

 met with the buzzard in the Xortli of Scotland, and writes : 

 " Far in the deepest solitudes of the deer-forests, the buzzard 

 ofttimes builds its nest. Its cradle is usually placed in some dense 



