Birds. 



6093 



the instance above recorded. Owing to this spirit of persecution many species of birds 

 which were once numerous in Great Britain have entirely disappeared, and year 

 by year many of the Sylviadse are becoming? exceedingly scarce. Last spring 

 a black redstart {Phcenicura tilhys), being the first recorded in Hertfordshire, took up 

 its abode in a friend's garden in this town, but it was destroyed notwithstanding our 

 efforts to preserve it. It has been stated, and I fear with some truth, that the greatest 

 enemies to birds are ornithologists, who should be their warmest friends. No sooner 

 is a strange bird discovered than war to the death is waged against it, and happy the 

 pseudo-naturalist who succeeds in depriving the wretched little wanderer of its life. 

 His fame is duly chronicled in the county newspaper, and a skilful taxidermist 

 employed to set up " the specimen," and exhibit it to his admiring friends. I 

 am aware that all this is justified as being in the cause of science, but I would ask 

 how is science advanced by the death of Mr. P. Matthevvs's hoopoe? If a specimen 

 were wanted it could have been procured from France at the price of a few shillings. 

 Last year, in a journal devoted to Natural History, there appeared a notice of 

 a nightingale in Devonshire. Now, all naturalists are aware that, from some cause 

 which we cannot explain, these sweet songsters seldom visit that or the adjacent 

 county of Cornwall. One would have thought that its very unusual appearance there 

 would have been hailed with delight, and so it was, probably, by most of the residents ; 

 but in an unlucky hour it was discovered by a naturalist, and — with indignation I 

 write it — he barbarously and selfishly took its life. " I was fortunate," writes 

 this cruel philomelicide, " to shoot it as it was singing on the topmost sprig of a haw- 

 thorn bush.'' I protest, as I write, I can hardly restrain my pen within the due bounds 

 of courtesy, and I shall not trust myself to comment upon it. But I indignantly deny 

 to those destroyers the honourable name of naturalists. To my mind, the great end 

 and aim of the study of Natural History is to induce us to note the wonderful instinct 

 by which each animal and bird procures its food, conceals and rears its young, and the 

 adaptation to the situation and circumstances in which it has been placed by the 

 Great Creator, and so to teach us 



" To look from nature up to nature's God.'' 



s 



Nor do I consider that in any case we are justified in depriving these innocent crea- 

 tures of their life, even though it were necessary in the cause of science. — James S. 

 Walker ^ Netv England House, Hitchin, Herts, April 19, 1858. 



Occurrence of the Hoopoe and Pied Flycatcher in Yorkshire, — I send you a notice 

 of two scarce birds which during the last week have been killed in this neigh- 

 bourhood : a male specimen of the hoopoe was shot at Witton Fell, near Middleham, 

 on the 24th of April, an unusual time of year for this species to be procured in Great 

 Britain ; and on the 29ih of the same month a pied flycatcher, also a male, was shot 

 near Reeth, the first time the bird has come under my notice in this district. — Henry 

 Smurthwaite ; Richmond, Yorkshire, May 1, 1858. 



Plectrophanes nivalis. — In the April number of the 'Zoologist' (Zool. 6015) 

 Mr. Matthews states that a snow bunting was in the habit of perching upon a tall 

 tree in a hedge-row. Surely this is a mistake. At page 281 of the 'British 

 Ornithology,' Mr. Selby, in speaking of the snow bunting, savs " they run with ease 

 and celerity, like the lark genus, and never prrch on treesP I can confirm Mr. Selby 's 

 statement from my own observations: 1 have seen numbers of these birds on the 

 coast of Essex, but in no instance have I ever seen one attempt to perch on a bush or 



