BIRDS 



Hertfordshire compares favourably with most other counties in its 

 list of birds, although it has not the advantages of a sea coast. Parti- 

 ally to compensate for this, it has at least two good-sized areas of artificial 

 water, which have undoubtedly contributed towards increasing its list of 

 feathered visitors. Indeed the reservoirs at Tring and Elstree form ex- 

 cellent examples of the methods by which civilization indirectly induces 

 birds to become resident in a place where otherwise they would probably 

 never have come at all, even as accidental visitors. The county of Hert- 

 ford is not from an ornithological point of view particularly well off for 

 rivers, as although there are a good many small streams, few of them 

 are really large enough to be attractive to wildfowl. One may roughly 

 divide Hertfordshire into two districts for the purpose of studying its 

 avifauna the northern, which is chiefly composed of open hilly coun- 

 try, and the southern, which is enclosed and well wooded, with fine 

 parks and commons scattered about it. 



The first division, which comprises only a small area as compared 

 with the other, practically consists of a range of chalk hills running 

 across the north of the county from east to west : these hills, which 

 somewhat resemble the downs in Sussex and Berkshire, though on a 

 smaller scale, are to a great extent unenclosed, although this is not so 

 much the case now as in former times. Scattered about over these are 

 small plantations, principally composed of conifers, which are the chief 

 strongholds in the county of the long-eared owl (Asia otus). This part 

 of the county was formerly the resort of certain species of birds which 

 love the open country, but these have now unfortunately disappeared be- 

 fore enclosures and improved methods of cultivation. 



The other division, which is composed of enclosed lands, abounds 

 in hedgerows and woods which form attractive homes for many of 

 our smaller birds. There the avifauna differs considerably from that 

 found further north, as warblers and birds of that description take the 

 place of the finches and buntings of the open country, while on the 

 gorse-covered commons, so abundant in Hertfordshire, one may see the 

 stonechat (Pratincola rubicold), whinchat (P. rubetra)^ grasshopper-warbler 

 (Locustella ncevia) , and nightjar (Caprimulgus europtzus). This part of the 

 county is more or less undulating, and on many of the streams flowing 

 down the valleys one may find the dabchick (Podicipes JJuviatilis) . In 

 the extreme south of the county there is less arable and more grass 

 land, and the woods are as a rule much smaller ; the hedgerows however 

 are well timbered. This is the last haunt of the carrion-crow (Corvus 

 i 193 o 



