CHAPTER VI. 
How to tell Birds on the Wing. 
‘‘T can tell a hawk from a hernshaw.’’—Shakespeare. 
The small perching-birds and the difficulty of distinguishing them—The wag- 
tails — The finches— The buntings— The redstart-wheatear, Stonechat — The 
thrushes — The warblers — The tit-mice— The nuthatch, and tree-creeper — The 
spotted-flycatcher—The red-backed shrike—swallows, martins, and swifts—The 
night-jar — owls — Woodpeckers. 
HE experienced ornithologist apart, there are hosts of people 
aly. who are interested, at least, in our native birds: who would 
fain call them all by name; yet who can distinguish no more than 
a very few of our commonest species. They are constantly 
hoping to find some book which will give, in a word, the “ Hall- 
mark” of every bird they may meet in a day’s march. But that 
book will never be written. For some species present no out- 
standing features by which they may be certainly identified, 
when no more than a momentary examination is possible, and this 
at a distance. And it is often extremely difficult to set down in 
words, exactly, what are the reasons for deciding that some 
rapidly retreating form belongs to this, or that, species. 
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