XII. 
NOTES ON BIRDS OBSERVED IN HERTFORDSHIRE DURING 
THE YEAR 1889. 
By George Hooper, E.Z.S. 
Bead at Watford , 18 th November, 1890. 
I think that since the death of our late lamented friend, Mr. 
Littleboy, whose office of Ornithological Hecorder I so unworthily 
fill, rare birds have altogether ceased to visit this part of the 
country. At any rate, I have heard of very few. Were it other¬ 
wise, a dry record of arrival and departure of visitants more or less 
uncommon, might, however short, prove somewhat tedious in the 
recital. I have ventured therefore to expand my record by adding 
some particulars of the life and habits of the birds referred to, and 
of their immediate relations, making my address, in some measure, 
a supplement to the one you were kind enough to listen to 
last year, when I discoursed about “Birds, their Nests and 
Habits.” 
To commence with the records of our rarer visitants, I may 
mention that that indefatigable and accurate observer, Mr. Henry 
Lewis of St. Albans, reported having seen on the 14th of April 
a lesser spotted woodpecker (Ficus minor ), now a rare bird, though 
formerly plentiful. His brother, about the same time, observed a 
“Java sparrow,” feeding with a flock of common sparrows, who 
must have felt honoured by such recognition of their cousinship. 
I think that this bird must have escaped from confinement, and 
cannot therefore admit him even as a “ rare visitant ” to the County 
of Hertford. The woodpecker I may refer to later on. 
A hawfinch was caught by Mr. Southgate in March. I hope he 
let him go again, but he could hardly be blamed if he did not, for 
the hawfinch is a very mischievous bird in the garden. Like the 
bullfinch, his favourite food in the early spring consists of fruit- 
buds. I have at least two pairs of hawfinches in my garden; 
besides the mischief they do, they cause much litter by biting off 
the new shoots of the yew, whilst feeding on the berries. The 
hawfinch is much more common than is generally supposed, but, 
although larger than the chaffinch, it is not unlike that bird, 
and is frequently mistaken for it. The bird was formerly con¬ 
sidered to be a winter visitant only, but is now known to breed 
commonly in this country, especially in Epping Forest. 
Last winter Miss Selby observed a white robin near Garstons; 
and Mr. Selby informed me that a “white lark” was frequently 
seen amongst a flock of those birds in one of his fields. This must have 
been the snow-bunting or snow-flake (Plectrophanes Laponica), a rare 
bird in this country, allied both to the larks and the buntings, and 
resembling both in shape and habit. When observed, it has always 
been under similar circumstances to those recorded by Mr. Selby, 
viz. in the company of a flock of larks. 
Mr. Lewis reported the arrival of the cuckoo on the 12th of 
