1922.] REPORTS. 83 



Report of the Ornithological Section, 1922. 



Of the many migrants that visit the Island and sojourn 

 in our- midst for a longer or shorter period each year — ■ 

 some during the summer months, others in winter time — -one 

 cannot but regret that the nightingale, that plain little bird 

 in sober grey, is not of the number. As is well known the 

 distribution of this bird in England is peculiar, a more or 

 less sharply defined line of demarcation, running from S.W. 

 to N.E., separating those districts in which the bird is found 

 from those in which it does not occur, or is but seldom 

 observed. 



In Guernsey we are not without trustworthily recorded 

 occasions on which the bird has been either heard or seen, 

 but they are very few in number and far between (see the 

 Society's Transactions of 191 4), and further, the record in 

 each instance noted there relates to a single observation only. 

 This leads one to the conclusion that now and then for some 

 reason or other a solitary nightingale finds its way here on 

 the journey northward and informs some lucky passer-by of 

 the interesting fact. 



Last year another sporadic appearance of this migrant 

 was reported, this time from St. Peter-in-the-Wood where, 

 at the Clos du Coudre, in May, the bird was heard nightly 

 for nearly a week. (See the 1921 Transactions.} In this 

 latest observation the important fact, as it seems to me, is the 

 length of time — nearly a week — during which the songster 

 was heard, previously noted observations being confined to 

 one day only. Is it presumptuous, after last year's occur- 

 rence, to be somewhat more hopeful as to the ultimate future 

 of the nightingale here? 



The avifauna of Guernsey has varied considerably in the 

 course of years, birds once rare or migratory only are now 

 common and resident, ethers, at one time abundant or regular 

 visitors, have disappeared altogether or are seldom seen to- 

 day. The bullfinch, for instance, not so many years ago 

 but rarely seen, is now resident and increasing its numbers 

 in spite of the cruel persecution it is subjected to — a perse- 

 cution which, personally, I trust will not have the effect of 

 wholly depriving the bird lovers in Guernsey of this strik- 

 ingly pretty species. On the other hand, the chough, once 

 common here, has disappeared and, of migratory birds, the 

 corncrake at one time a fairly abundant visitor is seldom 

 heard now in a summer evening's ramble. 



I am not at the moment able to give my authority for the 

 statement, but I have read somewhere that the nightingale 



