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THE PIED FLY CATCHEE. 



[By Mr. W. Warde Fowler.] 



I was a little astonished, when lately turning over the pages of the late Dr. Bull's 

 "Birds of Herefordshire," to find that the Pied Flycatcher is not a tolerably 

 common bird in this county. Even if he does not choose to stop and spend the 

 summer here, I should have expected him to call on its way into Wales. And I 

 am, in fact, considerably puzzled to know how the birds of this species, which are 

 beyond doubt as abundant in Breconshire and Radnorshire as they are anywhere 

 in this island, find their way there and back again, if it is not through the most 

 natural and tempting route — the valley of the Wye. 



And here I should like to make a remark, in which I hope I shall not be 

 anticipating anything that will be said by the next reader. I have often been 

 struck by the comparative meagreness of our knowledge of the movements of 

 birds in our own country. 



We know in a general way that certain birds move north and south at 

 certain times of the year, and we know at what time they reach or pass our own 

 particular haunts. But of the course they take in their journeys we know very 

 little, yet we may be pretty sure, on the analogy of more distant migrations, that 

 that course is regular and for the most part unvaried. Take the case of the 

 Common Sandpiper. We know in Oxfordshire that we may look for this bird 

 about the first week in May ; and I doubt if it ever disappoints us. But it only 

 stays a week or so ; and what journey does it make when it leaves us ? That it is 

 on its way to its breeding-quarters is clear enough ; but its route ought to be 

 known well enough to be marked out on a map. How again do the Swallows 

 and Sandmartins reach the West and North of England after arriving from the 

 Continent, and how do they find their way back again to the sea? Do they come 

 "anyhow," as one may say, and regardless of the features of the country, or do 

 they follow regular routes ? Last September I made the discovery (if I may use 

 the word, for what I saw was published in Nature and in Tkc Field, and called 

 forth no remark from any previous observers) that the Swallows and Martins of 

 Devon and Cornwall pass on their autumn migration in countless numliers along 

 the coast of Dorset eastwards and before they cross the sea. Depend upon it 

 there is much to be learnt of migration under our very eyes ; and to this 

 every one can contribute something which a little organization might turn to good 

 account. It is, in fact, organization which is the great thing needed to make 

 County Societies useful, so far as ornithology is concerned. Counties are purely 

 artificial divisions, and the ornithology of a county has as a rule only the same 

 kind of interest on a larger scale as the ornithology of a parish or a union. What 

 county observers should aim at, if I may venture to say so, is some kind of 

 organization which should include the observers of all such neighbouring counties 

 as form, in a greater or less degree, a natural division of the island. Such as is the 

 basin of the Thames or Severn, or the sea counties of the Southern Coast. 



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