BIRDS 



are reserved to the owner of the Tring Park estate, and, owing to the 

 reservoirs being strictly preserved, they form a splendid home for three or 

 four species of ducks, while the great crested grebe (Podicipes cristatus) 

 nests there in numbers such as are to be found at few other places in the 

 British Isles. In addition to this, they offer great attractions to birds 

 passing on migration, which but for the water might never alight in 

 Hertfordshire at all. 



Turning from field natural history to the more scientific side of the 

 subject, we find that practically nothing has been done in this way for 

 Hertfordshire. There is no really good collection of local birds in exist- 

 ence. No doubt there are in the Tring Museum many specimens which 

 have been obtained in the county, but they are quite a minor detail in a 

 collection which is one of the finest in the world. Specimens of various 

 sorts which have been procured locally are preserved in many parts of 

 the county, but there are no organized collections, though now there is 

 a county museum at St. Albans it is hoped to form one there. The 

 most interesting lot of local birds is that belonging to the Hon. A. 

 Holland-Hibbert, at Munden near Watford. This comprises compara- 

 tively few specimens, but in it are included several birds of great 

 local interest, most of which were obtained in the neighbourhood 

 between 1840 and 1850. 



No history of the birds of Hertfordshire ever appears to have been 

 published, but for the last twenty-five years a great deal of information 

 has been published in the Transactions of the Hertfordshire Natural His- 

 tory Society and its predecessor, the Watford Natural History Society. 

 The late J. E. Littleboy, who lived at Hunton Bridge, was the first to 

 collect any information about the county birds, and it is to him that we 

 owe so much of our knowledge of the Hertfordshire avifauna. The re- 

 cords contained in the annual reports to the above societies form the 

 foundation of the following list of birds, and to this I have added all 

 facts that I have been able to glean from any books and zoological 

 journals bearing on the subject, as well as any notes of my own that 

 seemed to me to be of interest. Having regard to this, it appeared best 

 to me to put references to such records in the list as have been obtained 

 from other sources than the societies' Transactions and my own notes, 

 and this course I have accordingly followed. 



1. Missel-Thrush. Turdus viscivorus, Linn. most red eyes, and was caught by a cat 

 This species is a fairly plentiful resident belonging to Mr. Dickenson, of Harpenden 



throughout the county, but its numbers are Road, St. Albans, who I believe still has the 



at times greatly increased by immigrants, bird in his possession. A hybrid also of this 



This was especially the case during the winter species and the blackbird (T. merula) was 



of 1899-1900, when there was apparently a obtained at Tring on January 25th, 1886. 



very considerable influx into the county, as I This latter occurrence was reported to the 



saw them in many places in good-sized flocks, late J. E. Littleboy by the Hon. Walter 



2. Song-Thrush. Turdus musicus, Linn. Rothschild, 



This is a common bird in Hertfordshire. 3- Redwing. Turdus iliacus, Linn. 

 Albino varieties of it have occasionally oc- The redwing is a regular winter visitor, but 

 curred. One obtained was white, with al- its numbers vary greatly in different years. 



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