In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 



197 



of the species which you may have before you ; and so many new 

 species, also, have been of late years discovered that it adds to the 

 difficulty, and proves how hard identification has been. If any one 

 is well up in the warblers, I am bold to say no other class of birds 

 will greatly puzzle him, not even the Sandpipers or Gulls, both of 

 which require a pretty good apprenticeship ere birds in different 

 states of plumage can be verified without hesitation. 



Accentor Alpinus. "Alpine Accentor/'' No notice. Mr. Baker 

 has a nice specimen in his collection, but not local. One can only 

 take refuge in the Rev. A. C. Smith's description that " it probably 

 visits us occasionally." 



Accentor Modular is. <c Hedge-sparrow/'' Abundant ; a confiding 

 little bird, of which we can tell no harm, sometimes called " Shuffle- 

 wing, " from its curious mode of progression. In 1875 I noticed a 

 very pretty cinnamon-coloured variety of this bird in the parish, 

 and asked the gamekeeper's little son if he would catch it for me, and 

 I own I felt myself reproved when he answered, "Please, Sir, I'd rather 

 not, he does no harm/' and the little bird so gallantly defended was 

 left in peace. I heard of another specimen, also, of the same colour 

 last year, that was nesting in the parish hard by ; this was a lighter 

 coloured specimen than the last-mentioned one. 



Sylvia Rubecula. " Robin Redbreast." Familiar, fearless, jaunty, 

 and bold. The only bird that sings all the year round ! teaching us 

 that there is no time when thankfulness is out of season. I re- 

 member a curiosity in the way of a nesting-place of the Robin, 

 which I discovered when a school-boy at Winchester. I was walking 

 through a little spinney (" Scards") surrounded by houses, which 

 was the receptacle of all kinds of broken crockery and useless 

 material, when I chanced to kick against an old tin coffee-pot, lying 

 on the ground, out of which flew a bird ; and when I examined the 

 interior of the article there was a Robin's nest, with five eggs in it. 

 I once had an animated discussion with a lady friend of mine con- 

 cerning the number of eggs that a Robin's nest usually contained. 

 The lady contended that there were generally six ; I, on my part, 

 stood up for five. As we could not agree — each, as is sometimes 

 the case, preferring our own opinion — I suggested that the point in 

 vol. xvm. — no. Lin. p 



