34 A. F. ClSOSSMAiS' :N0TES Olf BIRDS 



Chipperfielcl, on May 1st of last year. These birds, from their 

 behaviour, were apparently nesting there. Mr. "VVorte, who is well 

 acquainted Avith this species, has no doubt whatever about the 

 identity of the birds he saw. Colonel Irby, in his ' Key List of 

 British Birds,' speaks of this species as being resident south of the 

 Thames, but rarely occumng north of that river. He also states 

 that it is local, being found in gorse districts only. Mr. Howard 

 Saunders, in the second edition of his ' Manual of British Birds,' 

 which is now in course of publication, says : * ' Allowing for a little 

 wandering it may be described as a resident species in the south, 

 chiefly frequenting furze-covered commons, and apparently ex- 

 tending its range both westward and northward of late years. It 

 is a skulking little bird, especially in dull rainy weather, and 

 a patch of gorse holding two or three pairs may be easily passed 

 over, even by a careful observer, as untenanted." 



2. Great Bustard {Otis tarda). — In my report for 1895 I 

 stated that I thought that this bird should be included in our 

 county list, but that I could find no specific record of it in 

 Hertfordshire. Since then I have been able to obtain some more 

 information, which, although not very definite, is sufficient to 

 justify the great bustard being included in the birds of Hertford- 

 shire. As the country around Eoyston appeared to me to be 

 the most likely place for it to have remained in, I made inquiries 

 of Mr. Nunn of that place. He could not tell me very much, 

 but he was able to inform me that about ninety years ago the last 

 Hertfordshire specimen appeared in the neighbourhood of Royston. 

 Many people went out to try and shoot the bird, but nobody was 

 successful, and it eventually disappeared. There is one more 

 record of this splendid bird in our county : this is a statement 

 by "Willoughby and Eay that the great bustard frequented Eoyston 

 Heath. No doubt at one time this bird was not uncommon on the 

 vast open fields which extended across the north of Hertfordshire. 

 Though I can at present give no more details, this short account 

 may perhaps be interesting, inasmuch as it goes towards showing 

 that our county was once one of the haunts of the finest bird 

 indigenous to the British Isles. If any of our members should 

 wish to read more about the occurrence of the bird in England, 

 I would refer them to Stevenson's 'Birds of Norfolk,' in which 

 is collected a detailed history of the Norfolk bustards, the last 

 survivors of the race resident in Britain. The great bustard 

 has occurred in this country on several occasions since the 

 extermination of the Norfolk birds, but one does not place 

 migrants on a level with birds which were natives of the soil. 



I will now give the notes that I have obtained on various birds 

 which have occurred before in the county but appear to me to be 

 worthy of record. 



Blackbird [Turdtcs merula). — Mr. T. Vaughan Roberts infoiTns 

 me of a pied variety of this bird which frequented his garden last 

 year. The white showed chiefly on the wings, but the head, back, 

 and neck were also spotted. 



