10 EXPORTS. 



Report of the Ornithological Section, 1921. 



In the November, 1920, No. of the Nineteenth Century, 

 is a very charmingly written article entitled "Song-Birds in 

 Autumn/' to which I wish to call the attention ol all bird- 

 lovers, especially the workers in the Ornithological Section 

 of the Society. The author, Mr. Anthony Collet, blends 

 together a wealth of knowledge of birds and their ways and 

 of the weather, into ten pages of fascinating reading. It 

 is hardly necessary for me to add that the Nineteenth Cen- 

 tury is taken in at the Guille-Alles Library, where this part 

 may be seen and borrowed. 



Here is one extract from Mr. Collet's article, one only 

 out of several I might quote equally true to nature and as 

 delightfully penned : — 



' 'October burns out in scarlet and orange among the beeches, 

 November lights a flame as brilliant, and almost as varied, 

 among the elms • the gales blow from the open doors of the 

 south, the snap from the north-west with which they finish 

 brings a few hours' bracing chill, and more brillaint sunlight ; 

 and while the shortening days and the scent of mould in the 

 fallen leaves tell of ebbing vitality, the song-birds insist that 

 it is the beginning of spring.' 5 



How realistic a word picture this we who live in Guern- 

 sey and go about the country observing the birds and nature 

 generally, know. Winter by winter when the days are at their 

 shortest and frequently sunless, and mild south-west winds 

 are blowing in from the warm Atlantic, the birds, prominent 

 among them the thrush, burst into a rapture of song. They 

 greet the dawn with a chorus of music that those amongst 

 us who are fortunate enough to be out and about to hear is 

 soul haunting in its sweetness, and if (in vivid contrast to the 

 leafless trees from which the music reaches us and the sodden 

 ground we tread under foot) sadly reminiscent of the past 

 summer, full of promise, too, of the summer that is coming 

 again. 



In the preparation of this Report I have pleasure in 

 acknowledging much valued help received from a new mem- 

 ber of our Society, Miss Mildred A. Brock, of Petit Bot 

 House, the Forest, who has supplied me with a number of 

 particularly interesting notes of observations made during 

 this year. Miss Brock is a keen ornithologist and a careful 

 observer. To her as to all those who, for years past have 

 helped me with their notes, I am deeply grateful. 



