CHAPTER VI 
How to tell Birds on the Wing 
““T can tell a hawk from a hernshaw.”’ 
SHAKESPEARE. 
The small perching-birds and the difficulty of distinguishing them—The 
wagtails—The finches—The buntings—The redstart, wheatear, and stonechat— 
The thrushes—The warblers—The tit-mice—The nuthatch and tree-creeper—The 
spotted flycatcher— The red-backed shrike — Swallows, martins, and swifts— 
The nightjar—Owls—Woodpeckers. 
HE experienced ornithologist apart, there are hosts of 
people who are interested, at least, in our native birds: 
who would fain call them all by name; yet who can distin- 
guish no more than a very few of our commonest species. 
They are constantly hoping to find some book which will 
give, in a word, the “ Hall-mark”’ of every bird they may 
meet in a day’s march. But that book will never be written. 
For some species present no outstanding features by which 
they may be certainly identified, when no more than a 
momentary examination is possible, and this at a distance. 
And it is often extremely difficult to set down in words, 
exactly, what are the reasons for deciding that some rapidly 
retreating form belongs to this, or that, species. 
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