NA TURE 



60 1 



THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 1888. 



MR. A. C. SMITH'S ''BIRDS OF WILTSHIRE." 



The Birds of Wiltshire, coinprisitig all the Periodical 



and Occasional Visitants, as well as those which are 



indigenous to the County. By the Rev. Alfred Charles 



Smith, M.A. (London : Porter, 1887.) 



BY all ornithologists Wiltshire will be admitted to 

 be a county the birds of which are worthy of a 

 volume ; and all ornithologists, who know, even by name 

 and reputation only, Mr. Alfred Charles Smith, will admit 

 that he of all men is the proper author of that volume. 

 Nominally but the Honorary Secretary of the Wiltshire 

 Archaeological and Natural History Society, the Rector 

 of Yatesbury has for many years past been its most active 

 officer, and the editor of its organ — the Wiltshire Maga- 

 zine — to say nothing of the various " by-blows " of which 

 he has at times been delivered in the shape of " Tours " 

 in Portugal, Egypt, and Palestine, or of the very laborious 

 and important work on the " British and Roman Anti- 

 quities of the North Wiltshire Downs " — that work which 

 so narrowly escaped total destruction — nearly all the 

 copies of the original edition having perished by a disas- 

 trous fire while in the binders' hands. Mr. Smith, too, is 

 a Wiltonian of the Wiltonians ; not only one of the best- 

 known and most highly-esteemed men in his own county, 

 but one of those who, in these days of universal brother- 

 hood and cosmopolitan sympathies, are year by year 

 becoming rarer. Hence he speaks from the heart when 

 he expresses himself as in his opening paragraphs : — 



" The county of Wilts has been sometimes thought- 

 lessly said to be poor in Ornithology ; indeed, I have heard 

 it denounced by superficial observers as exceptionally 

 wanting in the various members of the feathered race ; 

 pre-eminent, doubtless, in the remains of antiquity — so 

 these gentlemen are good enough to allow — but in birds 

 a barren field indeed. Against any such verdict I enter 

 a decided protest, and I even maintain, on the contrary, 

 that, taking into consideration that Wiltshire is an inland 

 district, and therefore cannot be expected to abound in 

 birds whose habitat is the sea and the sea-shore, our county 

 will scarcely yield to any other, similarly situated, in the 

 number and variety of the species of birds to be found 

 there ; and I now proceed to prove this by statistics. 



" Let us first, however, examine the physical aspect of 

 Wiltshire, and we shall see that it is not composed of 

 bleak open downs alone, as its detractors superciliously 

 affirm, but that it can show a great diversity of scenery, 

 and much of it of surpassing beauty. We have, it is true, 

 our broad, open, expanding downs — and what native of 

 Wiltshire does not glory in them and admire them ? — but 

 we have at the same time our richly-timbered vales : if 

 we have hill, we have also dale ; if we have open plains, 

 we have also large woods and thick forests. Where shall 

 we find more clear and limpid streams, where more green 

 and laughing meadows, than in the valley of the Avon 

 (the northern and southern Avon), the vale of Kennet, or 

 of Pewsey, or of Wily, or of Wardour ? Where, again, in 

 all England can we meet with a forest to compare with 

 that of Savernake ? And in woods and parks and well- 

 timbered estates, both in the north and south of the 

 county, we are exceptionally rich" (pp. i, 2). 



All who have traversed Wiltshire will readily allow the 

 truth of these words, skilfully put together as they are by 

 our author, in regard to the pleasing variety which its 

 Vol xxxvit — No. 965. 



landscape in several parts exhibits, yet it must be con- 

 fessed that the variety is limited in extent— the same 

 features recurring over and over again, so that one range 

 of downs or one valley repeats another. Both down and 

 valley are alike enjoyable to the utmost, but the contrast 

 between them is mild when compared with that afforded 

 by hill and dale in many another county ; and, above all> 

 whatever may be the reason of it. Nature in Wiltshire 

 wears an aspect of sameness, which, after a few days, 

 becomes almost distressing to the stranger, because it is 

 disappointing, though the native may very likely rejoice 

 in the absence of everything that suggests a wild country ; 

 and a wild country, it should be needless to observe, gives 

 the hope, if not its realization, of a plentiful crop of birds. 

 Though we fully admit the strong temptation to which 

 a faunistic writer is exposed of magnifying the area of his 

 field of work, it has been our duty before now in these 

 columns to condemn the inconsiderate yielding to that 

 temptation ; and, with the utmost regard for our present 

 author, we are compelled to say that he has fallen — 

 perhaps not so deeply as others — into this besetting sin. 

 We must repeat what we have so often urged before. The 

 real interest (not only scientific, but even sentimental) of 

 a fauna lies in its proper inhabitants — those that are 

 entitled to all the rights and privileges of citizenship — and 

 not in those adventitious ahens, 



* Blown from over every main " 



—strangers which are the sport of fate, and to whom the 

 offer of letters of naturalization is not only a mockery — 

 for if chance allows they are invariably killed — but an 

 insult to the rightful denizens of the district. However, 

 even on the unprincipled principle — which, by the way, is 

 only admitted in ornithology among all the many branches 

 of natural history — that a species once showing itself in 

 a district should be scored to that district's credit, some 

 proof of the alleged appearance is needed before it be 

 accepted as a fact. Experience proves that there are few 

 compilers of faunas, especially ornithological faunas, 

 who are not ready, we will not say to strain a point, but to 

 receive favourable evidence on easy terms ; and indeed a 

 rigid examination of all claims to admission, with a stem 

 rejection of those that cannot be substantiated, is a virtue 

 which has hardly been cultivated until within these later 

 days, and not often even recently. 



We have just said that in this respect Mr. Smith is not 

 a grievous sinner ; and, after examining his list pretty 

 carefully, we find but sixteen species that we think ought, 

 almost without any doubt, to be excluded on one ground 

 or another — whether the ground be insufficient testimony, 

 manifest importation, or from their proper habitat being 

 so far distant as to render it nearly certain that their 

 recognition within the boundaries of the county was only 

 the accident of an accident. But how much stronger 

 would Mr. Smith's list be if these sixteen species were 

 omitted 1 and how much stronger still if the (say) forty 

 irregular visitants were also subtracted ? Then, and only 

 then, would the ordinary reader know the wealth of Wilt- 

 shire ornithology ; and, for an inland county, presenting 

 (as we have stated) a not very diversified area, and 

 mainly composed of one geological formation, a very re- 

 spectable comparison could be made, we are confident, 

 with any other county, however favourably situated. We 



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