ORNITHOLOGY AND CYCLING 
33 
allow a person on foot to approach within as many yards. More- 
over, unless you are riding very fast, the sound made by your 
wheels and by the air rushing by your face does not prevent 
your hearing the songs around you, though, of course, you cannot 
stop and listen to them without dismounting. Whenever I can 
get away from my work, I have an inclination to follow the sing- 
ing of birds. Often, when I have felt it absolutely necessary to 
hear something besides the Kensington Gardens thrushes and 
robins, I have ridden down the Uxbridge Road in the early 
morning before breakfast, until I have reached a field over which 
a lark was singing. Before the days of bicycles this was im- 
possible. 
The most enjoyable ride I ever had was by myself one 
Saturday afternoon last May. During that ride 1 heard the 
songs of the blackcap, nightingale, garden warbler, wood wren 
and many others ; and I heard or saw in all forty-seven species 
of birds. It was a run down the Ripley Road over Hindhead to 
Liphook — where I spent the night — riding home the next morn- 
ing. To tear from the summit of Hindhead into Liphook, down 
several miles of a beautifully graduated slope, with the blaze of 
an evening sun in your face and masses of golden gorse all 
around you, is the most exhilarating thing in the world. It is 
enough to make you almost burst with joie de vivre. During that 
one ride I saw or heard the following species : greenfinch, chaf- 
finch, linnet, peewit, jay, magpie, jackdaw, rook, crow, wood 
wren, willow wren, chiff-chatf, nightingale, blackcap, garden 
warbler, whitethroat, sparrow, starling, blackbird, thrush, missel- 
thrush, kestrel, corn bunting, yellowhammer, great tit, blue tit, 
cole tit, stonechat, whinchat, heron, robin, hedge-sparrow, lark, 
nut-hatch, tree pipit, pheasant, redstart, swallow, martin, sand 
martin, swift, pied wagtail, wren, flycatcher, bullfinch, wood- 
pigeon and cuckoo. 
The distance from London to Liphook is about forty-four 
miles. The sand-martin was only seen near Mortlake; the heron, 
redstart and nut-hatch were only seen in Richmond Park ; all the 
other species were observed or heard between Ripley and 
Liphook. 
January, 1899. 
A. Holte Macpherson. 
