IDENTIFICATION. 5 1 



Swallow, the Raven, the Magpie, the Jackdaw, the Starling, the 

 House Sparrow, the Robin, the Wren, the Ringdove, the Tits, and the 

 Falcons ; the nests for the year being by far the most numerous, and 

 being tenanted by the birds who take a fresh mate annually, such as 

 the Thrush, the Chaffinch, the Whitethroat, the Skylark, the Willow 

 Warbler, and the Snipe, who all abandon their nests when the brood 

 is reared, and in some cases migrate about the country; for there is 

 an inland migration as well as a foreign one. 



A bird always breeds in the coldest climate he visits, and some 

 birds are migrants in one country and residents in another. The 

 Robin, for instance, is resident here, but migrant in Germany ; and 

 the search for food, warmth, and light will take a bird about an 

 island, just as it will take him across the sea. No bird breeding 

 south of us comes here, except as a straggler ; but a large number of 

 birds breeding in the north visit us for about a month, twice a year, 

 like the Little Stint and Redshank, which linger here on their way to 

 and from more genial climes ; while others, hke the Wigeon and 

 Fieldfare, find we are as far south as they care for, and stay the whole 

 of the winter with us. These winter visitants only stay to breed here 

 in rare instances. Those that nest here come in the spring, and some 

 of these come back to their old nests, though the majority merely 

 settle in the same neighbourhood. The same thing holds good 

 regarding the residents that merely migrate about the country ; some 

 will return, year after year, to the old nest, and some will always build 

 afresh. But in most cases, when the nest is returned to, it is improved 

 and enlarged, and we thus have another variety of nest — the one with 

 additions. 



But we must not give way to " migration fever " ; let us return to 

 our proper task, having given up flight and song and nest as useless 

 for the main subject, though useful as auxiliaries. Let us take a bird 

 of prey, which, being neither an Owl nor a Vulture, must be one of 

 the Falconidas. The first question to ask is, if its lores are feathered. 

 The "lore," as we showed in our diagram of the Thrush, on page 34, 

 is the space between the eye and the base of the beak. If the bird 

 has feathered lores, it is a Honey Buzzard, our sole representative of 

 the genus Pernis, which is the only bird of the Falcon family in this 

 country that has not its lores bare. If its lores are not feathered, has 

 it a forked tail ? There are only three Falconine genera with forked 

 tails — Elanus, of which only one specimen is on record, and that from 

 Ireland ; and Elanoides, of which only two specimens have been taken 

 here. It is therefore antecedently improbable that it will be one of 

 these. However, you will know Elanoides at once by his white head 

 and neck, and his long black narrow wings ; and a handsome fellow 

 he is ; and Elanus will give you as little difficulty with his grey head 

 and neck, and his black and white wings. As our bird has neither 

 black nor black and white wings, he must, if he has a forked tail, be a 

 Milvus, and of Milvus we have two species on the hst — one only seen 

 here once ; the other, ictinus, the Kite, which was at one time one of 

 our commonest birds, and even caught his food in Cheapside. 



But our specimen has not a forked tail, and therefore he is no 

 Kite. Look at his feet. If his tarsus is feathered to the toes, his 

 genus is Aquilaj if it is only feathered in front, it is Archibuteo ; and 

 if he belongs to either of these genera his fourth primary will be the 



