INTRODUCTION. 19 



stated that the fauna of Wymondham Park, his Norfolk 

 seat, included 143 birds. This was, however, surpassed 

 by what I was afterwards told by Mr. Risings, that the 

 fauna of Horsey, near Martham, also in the County 

 Norfolk, comprised the enormous number of 158 dif- 

 ferent species. The glories of Walton Hall pale before 

 such a host. 



In an ordinary walk in the country, I generally meet 

 with about twenty species in winter, and perhaps thirty 

 in summer, when the migrants are in force. The greatest 

 number I have noted in one day was fifty-one, and this 

 both at Beaumaris and in the Isle of Wight ; of course, 

 I reckon the birds I hear, as well as those I see, when I 

 am abroad. In the Malahide district, comprising both 

 shore and inland birds, I have met with more than forty 

 in a walk of three or four hours. 



There are but two ways of identifying birds by 

 seeing them and by hearing them : to those who are 

 not gifted with a musical ear the latter mode is impos- 

 sible ; and even persons with some musical taste are 

 very frequently unable to discriminate between the 

 songs of the Missel Thrush and Blackbird, or of the 

 Willow Warbler and the Wren. No doubt, this is the 

 result of inattention. In Ireland, however, there are 

 other difficulties in the identification of birds, which 

 arise mainly from two sources. First : the difficulty of 

 procuring books upon the subject. Mr. Thompson's 

 Birds of Ireland a truly valuable and almost ex- 

 haustive work is now out of print. Were such a man 

 as Mr. A. G. More to do for it what Professor Newton 

 has done for Yarrell's British Birds, he would confer 

 a boon upon the community. The only other book is 



