154 Tue Stupy or Birp LIFE. 
man might possibly be‘told that the district contained Huck- 
mucks (Long-Tailed Tits), Wynkernels (Waterhens), Yafflers 
(Green Woodpeckers), Yoldrings (Yellow Hammers), Shrites 
(Missel Thrushes), Shepsters (Starlings), Horniwinks (Lap 
Wings), Puckeridges (Nightjars), and Chauciders (Spotted Fly- 
catchers), all common birds with names simple enough, no doubt, 
if one only took the trouble to find out their derivations and a 
few other details employed in their manufacture, but names 
which in themselves would leave the enquirer no wiser than 
before. 
For the second time I venture to give a personal instance. 
In Surrey, not far from Boxhill, I wanted to find the nest of the 
Red-backed Shrike. No countryman knew of such a bird. I 
could not find the bird myself for some time, and when I did 
find it and happened to shew it to one of them saying it was a 
Red-backed Shrike—* Not it,’’ said he, “it’s a Jack-baker, 
there are lots about a mile from here.’’ I could see he didn’t 
think much of my knowledge as I could not tell a Red-backed 
Shrike (whatever that represented to him) from a Jack-baker, and 
I, for once, kept my thoughts to myself. 
I have put down these few names at random out of a pretty 
complete list of local (English) names of British birds I have got 
together in one county and another and they are fairly typical 
examples. What the local names may be in some parts of Scot- 
land I have never yet even dared to imagine. 
The last difficulty but one is that of distinguishing the notes 
of birds. Nothing but constant practice can get over this. It 
is not the song that is so important. It is the call-notes and the 
warning-notes. No one who has heard the warning note of the 
nightingale will be likely to forget it, nor will he forget that of 
the Blackbird or the Sparrow or the Great Tit and many 
others, but it would be quite excusable for anyone to forget— 
unless he saw the bird—the warning note or the call-note of the 
Golden-crested Wren, or the Tree Creeper, or the Marsh Tit, or 
a host of others. The various call-notes used by birds to indi- 
cate to one another their whereabouts must not be confused with 
the notes of warning when enemies are supposed to be about. 
And neither must be confused with the song, so that in this 
alone there is plenty of room for observation. 
And it must be remembered again that in many cases a bird 
