CHAPTER VI 



SOME BIRD PROBLEMS 

 (A Paper read by the Author before the Linnean Society on May Qth, 1913) 



THE observations which. I have the honour of placing before this 

 learned Society are based upon my experiences as a keen observer 

 of our British birds for more than thirty years, and of recent 

 years I have endeavoured to probe some of the life-secrets of 

 these feathered creatures rather more from the Nature-study 

 point of view than otherwise, and, as a result, find the pursuit 

 more fascinating than ever. The points to which I wish to direct 

 notice have occurred to me over and over again during the course 

 of my outdoor studies, though I do not claim that these so-called 

 " problems " are other than purely elementary, and I am only 

 a humble follower of Gilbert White, in all his old simplicity, and 

 imbued, I hope, with the same love of Nature, and spirit of 

 enquiry, which characterised the Naturalist of Selborne. One 

 remembers, too, that Charles Darwin, with whose name this 

 learned Society is inseparably associated, was always asking the 

 questions Why and How, so that it is stimulating for even a 

 humble enquirer to follow the Master Naturalist's example. 



At best, my own notes can only be more or less disjointed and 

 fragmentary, and it is somewhat difficult to group them together 

 in any orderly sequence. To overcome this difficulty I propose 

 following the new list of British Birds recently issued by a Com- 

 mittee of the British Ornithologists' Union, and treating of the 

 species to which I am desirous of drawing attention in the order 

 in which they occur in the list referred to. 



My studies have been confined for the most part to our more 

 familiar British inland birds, and it is to a few of these that I 

 propose to direct notice. 



The Corvidce hold pride of place in the B.O.U. List, and to 

 this interesting family the Rook (Corvus frugilegus), and Carrion 

 Crow (Corvus corone) belong. There are four points of interest 

 which occur to me with regard to these species as follows : 



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