HOW TO KNO\X^ THE BIRDS 



By the REV. MAURICE C. H. BIRD, MA., M.B.O.U. 



Illustrated with Photographs by 



RICHARD AND CHERRY KEARTON 



I.— A GENERAL SURVEY 



YOUNG KED-BACKED 

 SHRIKE. 



IT is a remarkable fact that even the in- 

 habitants of our country villages, every 

 one of whom probably has done more 

 or less birds'-nesting in their youth, are 

 nevertheless unable to mention by name 

 — much less to identify by sight — a 

 round score out of the 400 and more 

 birds that are enrolled upon the British 

 list. Some may know " a Hawk from 

 a Hamser," (Heron), but, as a general 

 rule, if all their Geese are not Swans, 

 all their Martins are Swallows, and all 

 their Rooks are Crows, and that without 

 any intentional reference to scientific 

 accuracy. 



It is only within recent years that any 

 active intelligent interest has been taken 

 by the general public in any branch of 

 natural history. Now, thanks greatly to 

 the Nature Study movement having been 

 introduced into our schools, the rising 

 generation is being encouraged to use 

 and improve its powers of observation, 

 to the exploding of many a former popular 

 fallacy. 



But although it is now well known that 

 the CuckfKj does not turn into a Hawk 

 in winter, and that many birds, which 

 once, in different ])hases of j^lumage, were 

 supposed to belong to distinct s])ecies, are 

 mere se.xual or seasonal variations of 

 one and the same species, still, each 

 succeeding year, nearly, adds a new name 

 to the catalogue of our occasional feath- 

 ered visitors, so that it becomes increas- 

 ingly difficult to identify with certainty 

 the birds of our. rambles. Who has not 



been puzzled by verbal descriptions of 

 birds ? A friend, full of excitement, 

 comes and tells you that he has seen a 

 bird, the like of which he is quite sure 

 that he has never seen before, and in 

 his eagerness to describe it to you exactly, 

 he paints a lengthy word-picture, sug- 

 gestive of an ornithological rarity. He 

 gives you details of size and shape and 

 colour, which in one or other particular 

 might be ap})licable to several species. 

 You give your informant credit for 

 some knowledge of all the commoner 

 forms of local bird life, and cast about in 

 your mind's eye for the most likely 

 casual visitor to fit in with the most 

 salient points of his picturesque descrip- 

 tion, and finally are obliged to arrive 

 at the conclusion— much to his disappoint- 

 ment certainly, and your own too, per- 

 haps — that he has, after all, merely 

 come across a veritable commoner, but 

 at an unusual season of the year, or in 

 an unexpected locality — a Reed Bunting 

 in a stackyard, or a Jack Snipe in July. 

 Ev^en with a bird in the hand, specific, 

 sexual, seasonal, and age-distinguishing 

 marks are often both small to behold, 

 and difficult to describe, without a know- 

 ledge and use of scientific terms. At a 

 distance, the difficulty of identification 

 is, of course, far greater, especially when 

 the observer is ignorant of what charac- 

 teristic feature or flight, note or attitude, 

 to look out for. Nor is it easy to lay down 

 any hard and fast rules by which to aid 

 the tyro outdoor student of British birds 



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