BIRDS 



their publications on the birds of Hertfordshire. The latter were correct, 

 but as both the Marsworth and Wilstone reservoirs are hard on the bor- 

 ders of Buckinghamshire, they must be taken into consideration when 

 treating of the ornis of this county, at the risk of being accused of over- 

 stepping our boundary. We are very sorry to say that owing to the 

 drought of the last three or four years, and the fact that the canal com- 

 pany are pumping out the water in great quantities, the Tring reservoirs 

 are decreasing in volume at an alarming rate and are being abandoned by 

 some of the more interesting breeding birds ; and it is to be feared that 

 very shortly nearly all the ornithological interest attached to these waters 

 will have entirely vanished. A very fine place for water birds is the 

 Halton (or Weston Turville) reservoir, which has so far retained its 

 former volume of water. 



We are very much obliged to a number of friends and correspond- 

 ents who have most kindly supplied us with notes of their observations 

 on birds. The Rev. Hubert D. Astley, until recently residing at 

 Chequers Court, gave us notes on the birds of that district. Mr. A. 

 Heneage Cocks supplied us with records from the neighbourhood of 

 High Wycombe and the Thames. Mr. Alan F. Grossman supplied us 

 with some observations made in south Buckinghamshire, and from 

 Messrs. Heatley Noble and Charles J. Wilson we received several inter- 

 esting communications. 



Colonel Goodall of Dinton Hall extracted most valuable infor- 

 mation from an old manuscript work at Dinton Hall, in which birds 

 obtained in that neighbourhood are well figured and described. This 

 work was commenced by his great grandfather, Sir John van Hatten, in 

 1772, and the notes are continued by the Rev. W. Goodall into the 

 beginning of the nineteenth century. Both authors of this treatise have 

 been permitted to look over the work and have verified the statements 

 made in it. 



Only one book on the birds of the county exists at the present. In 

 1868 appeared a handsome little volume of 232 pages entitled The Birds 

 of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire ', by Alexander W. M. Clark Kennedy, 

 ' an Eton Boy.' This is a very praiseworthy little book, full of carefully 

 collected and valuable information, though not without its faults. The 

 author was not more than sixteen years old, and it is a pity that he did 

 not endeavour to improve upon this work later and with a more mature 

 experience. 



We have strictly followed the nomenclature of Mr. Howard Saun- 

 ders's list by the editors' request, but in a few cases where we consider 

 a different nomenclature preferable we have, with the permission of 

 the editors, added a note to that effect. 



i. Missel-Thrush. Turdus visdvorus, Linn. 2. Song-Thrush. Turdus musicus, Linn. 



Not at all scarce, breeding in all suitable Very common and, like the missel-thrush 



woods, parks and gardens. In autumn and and blackbird, a very early breeder. The 



winter they go about in flocks, many of which majority of thrushes in the midland counties 



are doubtless migrants from north Europe. do not migrate, but stay throughout the 



1 I2Q I? 



