aly? Tue Stupy oF Birp LIFE. 
sarily coloured, and so forth. There is no space here to refer 
to the identification of eggs, nests, and so on. 
It is only right to add that ornithologists in the Solway 
district have an exceptionally kind and considerate authority 
always ready to give them the benefit of his wide experience and 
great knowledge, either in the actual haunts of the birds—where 
possible—or in the house. The one found righteous among so 
many not so, has done much, unwittingly it may be, to redeem 
the rest. I speak for myself personally in this matter of redemp- 
tion, after a considerable experience in many counties. I miss 
more than I care to say the many pleasant hours I have spent in 
his company. 
The fifth difficulty is connected with the local names of 
birds. This is undoubtedly a great difficulty to many. 
As a general rule it will be best for the ornithologist to take 
no notice whatever of anything he is told about any bird, name, 
or anything else, until he has seen it himself. The local names 
may so mislead him and waste so much time that it is better to 
go his own way and ask no questions except from capable 
people. It is not at all that the people do not know the birds he 
wants when they see them. They do, and a great deal about 
them too, but they only know them by names useless to any but 
themselves and those of their particular locality. 
This great frequency of local names is a much more serious 
matter to ornithologists than to botanists, as the former have to 
look for moving things. Of course all this applies mainly to 
those whose experience is not great in birds. A man with a 
certain amount of experience will take no notice of any name 
but the recognised one, or the scientific one. 
As instances of the difficulties in which beginners find them- 
selves—and even those further advanced—I give the following 
out of numerous others. 
In one county a certain bird is termed a Yellow Hammer, 
in another the Goldfinch. In getting a countryman or ordinary 
individual to describe either he does so in a way that might 
apply to each bird, in ignorance, of course, for it is a difficult 
matter to give a good and even fairly accurate description of 
anything whatever. Now as the Yellow Hammer is very common 
and the Goldfinch is not (save in a few localities) the ornitho- 
logist may spend a whole day in some places looking for the 
