BIRD NOTES 45 



the sandflies and other insects are making merry 

 upon the refuse stranded by the sea whipping them 

 up as they spring away at your advance. 



IDENTIFICATION OF BIRDS 



The spread of bird literature, and the more 

 systematic, scientific formation of private collections 

 of birds, have done much towards the furtherance 

 of our knowledge of the comings and goings of many 

 species, and of the occurrence of others hitherto 

 rarely, or never before, noticed or recorded. It is 

 remarkable that several of the rarest specimens that 

 I have known occur have fallen to the guns of 

 either exceedingly illiterate persons, or sportsmen 

 who, from inexperience and stupidity, scarcely 

 deserve the names. For instance, a lad in Sep- 

 tember 1883 tramped along Breydon walls, and 

 was about to cross on to the railway and make for 

 home, when it occurred to him, not having seen a 

 bird to shoot at, to knock over the first sparrow he 

 came across in order to empty his fowling-piece. 

 He observed a small bird near by, and shot at it, 

 killing it. It turned out to be a rather " funnier " 

 thing than he had hitherto handled, and it was 



