19 



■BIRDS,"— By Mr. H. MEAD BRIGGS. 



In the Hammond Room of the Royal Museum 



at the Canterbury Beaney Institute on Wednes- 

 day eveninj^ last, a highly interesting lecture was 

 given by Mr. H. Mead Briggs on some of the 

 varieties of birds in the valuable collection be- 

 queathed to the Museum by the late Mr. W. O. 

 Hammond, of St. Albans. The attendance was 

 not a large one, but the instructive remarks of the 

 lectiu'er were followed with close attention. 



The President of the Society, Mr. Sidney Har- 

 vey, F.I.C., F.C.S., in a few brief introductory 

 remarks, mentioned the fact that Mr. Briggs had 

 acted for some years as honoi-ary secretary of that 

 Society. He was an expert on the subject of birds, 

 and they had met in that room for obvious reasons 

 — as the mountain won't come to Mahomet, 

 Mahomet must come to the moiuitain (laughter). 



In opening his lecture — which was in no sense 

 a stereotyped discourse, but rather a pleasing 

 explanatory talk — said he desired to deal with a 

 few biids wliich had been found in East Kent. 

 Kent was one of the premier — he believed 

 the premier — county as regarded bird life. 

 They had, roughly speaking, 367 recognized 

 British specimens of bird life, and out of these 

 two hundi'ed and forty-seven had been found in 

 the County of Kent, which he thought spoke 

 remarkably well for the county (hear, hear). 

 First among the varieties briefly dealt with by 

 Mr. Briggs were the peregrine falcon, the old 

 hawlcing bird, which is still to be found breeding 

 on the clift's of our Kentish coasts, and the oyster 

 catcher, wliich is to be found in Kent in the 

 winter. The crested tit, the next variety to which 

 attention was drawn, existed, the lectiU'er said, 

 pi-incipally in the valleys of the Spey and some 

 of the neighbouring rivers, and was one of the 

 handsomest of the tit species. After an interest- 

 ing allusion to the puffin, with its curious parrot 

 bill, which is shed in autumn, thereby rendering 

 the bill much smaller, Mr. Briggs went on to 

 describe the Sandwich tern, which he said 

 derived its name through its having been fii-st 

 found at Sandwich in 1784. The roseate tern 

 ( in the same case ) he pointed out was 

 smaller, and had red legs. The avocet (in the 

 next case) was, he said, a most extraordinary bird. 

 One of the three specimens in that museum was 

 shot at Sandwich. These birds had a peculiar 

 scoopy movement in feeding. The smew, the next 

 bird refeiTed to, was stated to be the smallest, 

 and least numerous of the saw bills. Explana- 

 tions of other varieties were as follow .- — The 

 great crested glebe is found in the broads of Nor- 

 folk, where the pair exhibited was obtained. This 

 bird makes a nest like a lot of rubbish. In 1899 

 an adult was shot at Littlestone. The dipper had 

 been obsei-ved in Kent chiefly on migi-ation. but 

 some years ago his attention was called to a pair 

 at Chartham in the bi-eeding season. Although 

 he was not able to see the birds a friend and him- 

 self discovered a nest under an old bridge,and in all 

 probability it was still there. The woodcliat-shrike. 

 of the butcher l.nrd species, had only l>een found 

 four times in Kest, and the specimen in 



the Hammond collection was obtained in the 



warren between Dover and Folkestone. The next 

 bird, which was seemingly unable to bo identified 

 by any of the company present, possibly from 

 shyness, was described as " the common or 

 garden" cuckoo. The curious fact was alluded 

 to that the cuckoo often carries its egg in its 

 beak until it finds a nest in which to place it ; 

 and there was also brief reference to the spotted 

 cuckoo, of which there is no authentic record of its 

 having been found in Kent. The coloured pastor, 

 of the starling order, might be called one of our 

 rare East Kent birds. A specimen was shot by 

 Mr. W. O. Hammond at Godmersham in 1889. 

 The Richard pippit specimen in the Bluseiim was 

 one of two which had occuned in Kent, the other 

 being in the Dover Museum at the present time. 

 It is much larger than the ordinary pippit. The 

 nightjar, with its curious serated claw, the 

 use of wliich has yet to be determined : a 

 peculiarity of this bird is that it never perches in 

 the ordinary way. but always lies along the 

 branch with head down. The waxwing derives 

 its name from the tiny point of pink, waxlike 

 substance which is to be found in certain of 

 its feathers. Of the hoopoe, common enough in 

 China, there were about forty or fifty specimens 

 in Kent. It was, however, a comparative 

 i-arity, being only seen about once a year. 

 It was a question whether the bridled or braided 

 guillemot was a different species from the ordinary 

 guillemot, but authorities had held that it was not 

 a distinct variety. The next bird referred to was 

 an unidentified one. It is a little smaller than a 

 pigeon, with a long beak which has a small curve 

 at the end. It is claimed as a new species, it 

 having been before all the leading authorities in 

 England, none of whom knew what it is. It is 

 supposed to be a petrel of some description, and 

 by reason of the mystery surrounding it, is really 

 one of the most interesting specimens in the 

 Hammond collection. For a petrel, it is really an 

 exti-aordinary sized bird. It was picked up at 

 Wingham in 1865. In regard to the three buzzards, 

 one of these is the honey buzzard, a fierce looking 

 bird which feeds chiefly on wasps. It has occurred 

 about three or four times in Kent and used to 

 bi-eed in the New Forest. An interesting allusion 

 was made to thi-ee varieties of owls, and passing 

 on to the gannet it was mentioned that this bird 

 feeds chiefly on small fish on the surface. It has 

 a curious habit of coming down from a con- 

 siderable height with closed wings. Specimens 

 have occasionally been found in Kent. The 

 purple heron had only occurred about twice in 

 Kent, the other specimen being in the Dover 

 Museum. The bearded tit occurred in Kent at 

 Lydd in the Forties where it used to breed. Ac- 

 cording to the History of Kent, it was said that a 

 black-winged stilt was to be found in the Canter- 

 bury Museum : the question, said Mr. Briggs, was 

 where. In concluding, the lecturer gave some 

 interesting particulars concerning the woodcock. 

 Among some of the other rarer species which he 

 dealt with were ; — The 'great reed warbler, blue 



