Birds. 017 



Notes on the Ornithology of Kent. By J. Pemberton Bartlett, Esq. 



" How pleasant the life of a bird must be ! 

 Wherever it listeth, there to flee : 

 To go where a joyful fancy calls, 

 Dashing adown 'mong the waterfalls ; 

 Then wheeling about, with its mates at play, 

 Above and below and among the spray, 

 Hither and thither, with screams as wild 

 As the laughing mirth of a rosy child ! " 



One of the greatest benefits which a work like ' The Zoologist ' 

 confers on the cause of Natural History, is derived from its pages be- 

 ing open to communications from every part of the kingdom, on every 

 branch of that most fascinating study. It is through the instrumen- 

 tality of such a publication, that many facts most interesting to those 

 who love 



" To trace in Nature's most minute design 

 The signature and stamp of Pow'r Divine," 



are brought under their notice, which otherwise would not have ex- 

 tended to them. 



For notwithstanding the popularity which the study of Natural 

 History has of late years acquired, and consequently the great increase 

 in the number of those who turn their attention to it, yet it may truly 

 be said, 



" There are still in thee, 

 Instructive book of Nature ! many leaves 

 Which yet no mortal has perused." 



In the hope that the following brief notes on the feathered tribes of 

 Kent, may not prove altogether useless or uninteresting to the lovers 

 of this branch of Natural History, I am induced to send them to 'The 

 Zoologist.' Among the birds which have been taken in this county, 

 are a few of extreme rarity, and many others which are not commonly 

 met with. I had included in my list a notice of that very rare and 

 beautiful little bird, the blue-throated warbler (Sylvia suecica), which 

 I was informed had been shot at Margate, and which at first I quite 

 believed was the fact, indeed the account was in several of our county 

 papers ; but upon making further and more particular enquiries, I am 

 led to believe that the bird alluded to was a foreign skin, which had 

 been introduced by a person in Margate, and palmed upon the public 

 by him as a specimen killed there ! It is, I believe, in the Margate 

 museum. 



ii S 



