BIRDS 55 



as anything : six parts of whiting ; three of burnt alum ; one of camphor, 

 naphthalene, or " carbon." Make this into a fine powder, and mix it well up. 

 This is applied dry, but sometimes it must be used in the form of a soap, 

 and rubbed into the skin. For this purpose, add one part of soft soap, mix 

 all together with water to a thick paste, and stir it all up over a fire till 

 thoroughly mixed. Then bottle it. Dry " carbolic " soap may be used in- 

 stead of the " soft soap." 



These instructions are necessarily very brief ; but I would suggest that 

 the young student should, if possible, get round some good-natured taxi- 

 dermist, and watch him at work. He will learn more from one such ocular 

 demonstration than from many printed words. 



Classification of Birds. 



There are more than 470 species of birds known to these islands, but of 

 these only some 190 nest in this country. The rest are visitors, or birds of 

 passage. The coming and going of our bird visitors is a matter upon which 

 there is still much to learn. It is important to record the first observation 

 of the coming of the summer visitors and of their departure in the autumn ; 

 and here there is undoubted opening for many readers of this book who wish 

 to add to the general knowledge of birds. Keep a notebook for this purpose, 

 and put down the first and last date on which you saw any particular bird 

 in your district. 



The British Isles undoubtedly possess some special attractiveness to the 

 migratory birds, probably because they form a most convenient resting-place 

 on the long journeys which these birds make. 



Some 50 summer visitors come in April and May from Southern Europe 

 and Africa ; whilst 100 more arrive as winter visitors from September to Novem- 

 ber, driven by approaching winter from their nesting sites farther north in 

 Iceland, Greenland, and Northern Europe. There is thus a remarkable -series 

 of movements going on amongst our birds, and to it we must add the local 

 movements of the birds which reside with us all the year round. There is far 

 more migration amongst the most familiar of our common birds than is gener- 

 ally imagined. For instance, while some song thrushes are known to have 

 remained in the same neighbourhood, others have been found to have travelled 

 northwards or southwards, as the case may be. I am myself convinced that 

 even the ubiquitous sparrow changes his quarters very frequently, and the 

 scoundrel who nips your buds in the early spring is often not the same as the 

 one who nests in your tits' boxes. 



In addition, a large number of birds simply use these shores as a resting- 

 place on their journey, and do not spend a season here. These are called birds 

 of passage. 



We can thus classify our birds under the heads of Residents, Summer 

 Visitors, Winter Visitors, Birds of Passage, and Irregular Visitors, as follows : 



