INTRODUCTORY. Xlll 



lads to capture it. In the former instance, a friend 

 from Hampshire, famihar with the song, heard it, and 

 was convinced it was the Nightingale. This would 

 seem fairly conclusive, but every experienced field- 

 naturalist knows how easy it is to mistake a bird when 

 seen dimly among thick foliage ; and evidence from the 

 hearing of the song can only be accepted when the 

 observer is not only familiar with the particular notes, 

 but is also possessed of an ear trained by long use to 

 distinguish the — often very similar — songs of allied 

 species. It would, doubtless, not have been difficult for 

 Mr. Standen to settle the question by shooting either of 

 these songsters ; but I think he is to be congratulated 

 for having refrained, and that it is more to his honour 

 that room is left for scepticism, than that he should be 

 able to point to a skin in his cabinet as a specimen of 

 what might have been the progenitor of a race of 

 Lancashire Nightingales. 



Other insufficiently verified species are : — 



Water Pipit, Antlius spipoletta (L.); Mr. T. Webster, 

 of Manchester, writes (ZooL, p. 1,023, June 11th, 

 1845) that he saw, in October, 1843, at Fleetwood, three 

 birds which he identified as of this species from reading 

 a diagnosis of ANtluis aquaticus, one of the sj^nonyms of 

 A. spipoletta. 



Tawny Pipit, Antlnis econpestris (L.) ; Mr. John Hardy, 

 of Manchester, writes to me that he " has seen one or 

 two skins of the Tawny Pipit, and apparently in a fresh 

 condition, which were said to have been shot near the 

 Bolton reservoir at Entwistle." 



Dartford Warbler, MeUzo2)]iihis undatus (Boddaert) ; 

 Mr. T. Webster [ZooL, 1845, p. 1190) believes he 

 saw a pair with three or four young, at Lytham, about 

 August 27th, 1845. 



