The Rara Avis
Was there ever a year when so many unexpected birds were seen inland? I heard this week of a bittern being picked up in a wounded state in Hampshire, and though the species has been restored to us after its almost complete disappearance, it is a rarity in the South, if not in Norfolk. Other odd appearances have been oyster-catchers and stints in Hertfordshire and less black-backed gulls in a number inland counties. Of the rare duck and of the goosanders on the Thames above London many accounts have been published. It I perhaps surprising that the channel stops the immigration of so many birds ; for instance, that interesting bird, the little bittern. I sa many of them, and found two nests close to St. Omer in 5954 ; an very common birds in North France were the golden oriole, th hoopoe, the icterine warbler and the serin ; and there is some eviden that numbers of woodcock, in spite of their migratory habits, are fioall arrested at the dunes- near Boulogne. Certainly the numbers foun there are often immense. However, Sussex and Hampshire retch a certain sprinkling of such continental birds.
Previous page
