166 H. LEWIS NOTES Olf BIRDS 



named Pangboiirn ; and two at least were obtained by the late 

 Mr. Thrale of No Man's Land, besides those which Mr. Littleboy 

 has reported. 



The Quail {Coturnix comnmnis). — Mr. Seymour informs me that 

 a quail was shot just before Christmas at Hertingfoi'dbury, by Mr. 

 Topham of that place. From the numerous accounts in the ' Field ' 

 newspaper of this bird having been obtained in several different 

 counties in England during last year, it appears to have been un- 

 usually abundant. Although a summer visitor to this country, a 

 few appear to remain with us during the winter months. 



The following notes on birds, culled from letters I have received 

 from my friend Mr. Cane, of Luton, may prove of interest, although 

 the birds may not all have been obtained in Hertfordshire. In a 

 letter dated the 25th of January, 1892, he states: "I had a land- 

 rail brought to me on Saturday, taken at Toddington ; there was a 

 slight injury to one wing, which may account for its prolonged stay 

 with us, the bird being a summer visitor to our shores." He further 

 states in the same letter: "I also had brought to me a beautiful 

 blackbird with an almost white head." In another letter, dated 

 the 26th of January, he states that a bird-catcher in the previous 

 week caught a pure white or Albino linnet, and that mountain 

 finches were abundant in his neighbourhood. 



Mr. Arthur Dickinson reports having seen, in K^ovember last, 

 large flights of wood pigeons (^Columba 2Jnlumbus) and nine wild 

 geese passing over the New Farm, Harpenden. 



The arrival of our summer "Migrants" in this country must 

 always prove an unusually interesting event to a true lover of 

 Nature ; especially must this be the case to an ornithologist. That 

 a feeling of surprise not unmingied with wonder should take pos- 

 session of our minds is not unnatural on finding ourselves early one 

 fine spring morning literally surrounded with nightingales, in an 

 ecstasy of song, in the old spot, where the evening before not one 

 was to be heard or seen, our little wandering miustrels presenting 

 themselves to our view, supremely happy, and, with the rivalry of 

 love, already answering each other in an echo of song. The males 

 of this species arrive several days in advance of the females ; this 

 is the case with the grasshopper-warbler, and the greater white- 

 throat ; in fact the males arrive in most instances among our 

 Warblers before the females, but in the case of the swallow, 

 Charles Dixon, in ' Idle Hours with jSTature,' says : " The old birds 

 are paired for life, and fly the whole distance in company. . . . 

 Right across the mighty continent of Africa our little party of 

 swallows travel, lingering here and there in their northern flight" 

 (p. 21). Dixon also says that the common sandpiper and the 

 spotted flycatcher pair before they migrate, and that the common 

 sandpiper "pairs for life, and returns season after season to its old 

 breeding haunts ; but the young birds pair before leaving their 

 winter quarters" (p. 61). It is marvellous how a bird so small as 

 the willow-wren and its congeners can sustain the protracted flights 

 necessary to bring them from their winter to their summer quarters. 



