206 BRITISH BIRDS. j [VOL. XI. 
birds in this country; and there seems to be much more 
variety in their habits. And in spite of what has sometimes 
been said, they are usually easy to identify, for both my 
brother and I seemed to find that even species most notorious 
for “ skulking ’’ would, if given the chance, soon appear and 
show themselves. When first he was in Flanders, even 
without binoculars, he had no difficulty in identifying all the 
Long-tailed Tits he saw as 4. c. roseus. 
This is not to say that we were cold to the excitement of 
seeing large birds. One April day, after a long and unevent- 
ful walk over Romney Marsh, from Appledore to Dungeness, _ 
we sat down on the point, tired out, while our tea was being got 
ready, glad to have no more walking to do. Suddenly twelve 
big birds came flying right towards us, and passed within a 
hundred yards—Brent Geese—the first we had ever seen. A 
couple of minutes later we were consulting as to the possibility 
of walking the five miles (half of it shingle) to catch the train 
at Littlestone : such is the magical effect of an exciting bird 
on the tired ornithologist ! But this I compare in my mind 
with the far greater rapture of coming upon a party of Alpine 
Accentors and a Wall-Creeper on a great slab of rock above 
Torre Pellice, in the Cottian Alps, in December, 1915, one of 
our last bird adventures together. And better still was the 
sight and sound of half-a-dozen Snowfinches singing and 
soaring, their white wings flashing in the sunlight, near the 
top of M. Viglio in the Roman Apennines, two and a half 
years before. 
Whilst my brother was at Wye we found great pleasure in 
contributing information to Dr. N. F. Ticehurst’s History of 
the Birds of Kent and the B.O.C. Migration investigation ; 
these important works and British Birds, which was just then 
launched, seemed to provide the help we needed in our work. 
At the end of 1909 my brother left Wye, and for a year he 
was at Reading, adviser on plant diseases under the University | 
College and Berkshire County Council. During this year he 
got a very fair knowledge of the ornithology of the county, 
and mapped a considerable proportion of all the Corn- 
and Cirl Buntings that were breeding in Berkshire that year. 
Then he spent a few months at home, where he began to map 
Thrushes and Robins on a scale of 25 in. to the mile; the 
next three months he was combating plant diseases at Suckley, 
Worcestershire. After that, in June, 1911, he obtained a 
post as rédacteur in the International Institute of Agriculture 
at Rome. P 
This was not his first journey abroad. We spent a winter 
at Arcachon when he and I were respectively 11 and 9 years 
4 

