XVIII. 



NOTES ON BIRDS OBSERVED IN HERTFORDSHIRE DURING 

 f THE YEAR 1898. 



By Alan F. Grossman, F.L.S. 



Read at Watford, 28th March, 1899. 



So far as the occurrence of rare birds in the county goes, the 

 year 1898 has been a poor one, but perhaps this is really a good 

 thing, for, when there are many records of rare birds, it nearly 

 always means that a great many uncommon birds have been 

 destroyed. I only wish that everybody had the strength of 

 mind of one of my correspondents, who, although he had a gun 

 with him, refrained from shooting a rare bird which he saw, and 

 contented himself with merely watching it. I have in this report 

 only one bird to add to our county list, and that must be included 

 under the heading of introduced species. I thought that I was to 

 have the pleasure of including a new owl in our fauna, but I find 

 that my correspondent at first wrongly identified the species. In 

 fact, in the rough draft of this paper, I had included the bird, but 

 I have since heard that out of three specimens obtained, only one 

 which was shot just over the borders in Middlesex was of the 

 species mentioned. The bird I refer to is the scops o^\{Scops giu). 



I am pleased to see that some of my correspondents are 

 beginning to send me notes not only on rare birds, but also 

 on the distribution of the more common species. This is what 

 is required, as these annual reports are not merely for recording 

 what is often the useless slaughter of rarities, but are more for 

 the purpose of trying to help people to obtain a more accurate 

 idea of the distribution of the various species of birds frequenting 

 the county. In reference to such birds as ai'e shot, I should like, 

 however, to mention one or two points. One is, that when 

 anybody who is not a collector does obtain a specimen of some 

 species of bird, and is at a loss what to do with it, he cannot 

 do better than present it to the County Museum at St. Albans. 

 It is only right that local specimens should find their way into 

 a museum which is started more especially for the pui-pose of 

 showing the products of Hertfordshire. The other point is that 

 I should be very much obliged if anyone who has in their 

 possession stufited specimens of birds obtained in Hertfordshire, 

 or who comes across such specimens, would let me know of them. 

 There seem to be but few collections of local birds in the county, 

 in fact the only one, if the Tring collection is excluded, that 

 I have seen, is that belonging to the Hon. A. Holland-Hihbert at 

 Munden, near Watford. 



I will now turn to the various birds which have occurred in 

 Hertfordshire during the past year, commencing with the species 

 new to the county list. Before doing this, I will just state that 



