Letters

01 May 1996
Comments Letters In October 'News and comment' (Brit. Birds 88: 489), Shelley Hinsley's letter in the New Scientist about feeding peanuts in the summer was quoted. Readers may feel that this reference indicated the wholesale death of nestling tits Parus nationwide thro...
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Letters

01 October 1985
Comments Letters Distinction between Mandarin and Wood Duck in female-type plumages. A comprehensive description of differences between Mandarin Aix galericulata and Wood Duck A. sponsa was given by C. Holt {Brit. Birds 11: 227-232). As he noted, however, some of the c...
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Letters

01 December 1984
Comments Letters Tufted Duck carrying young. In connection with the recent notes by Montse Carbonell and Stephen B. Edwards (Brit. Birds 77: 318-319), I should like to draw attention to a previous published account by my husband, the late Dr Jeffery Harrison, of a fema...
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Letters

01 August 1983
Comments Letters The origin of 'twitcher'. Richard Porter (Brit. Birds 75: 537) has traced 'twitcher' back to 1968, but what were 'people who chase rare birds' called before that? My recollection is that before the Second World War they were known as 'pot-hunters', and...
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Letters

01 March 1979
Comments Letters Field identification of Snowy Egret. When discussing the problem of distinguishing the Snowy Egret Egretta thula from the Little Egret E. garzetta in the field, Stanley Cramp (Brit. Birds 70: 206-214) and I. J . Ferguson-Lees (in...
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Letters

01 April 1978
Comments Letters Golden Eagle killing red deer calf I am prompted by C. J. Northeast's note (Brit. Birds 71: 36-37) to draw attention to A. Baxter Cooper's excellent first-hand account of an immature Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos killing and attempting to lift...
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Letters

01 February 1957
Comments Letters ICELAND R E D W I N G S WINTERING SIRS,--October 1956 saw an unparalleled " i n v a s i o n " of Iceland Redwings (Turdus musicus coburni) through Fair Isle, big movements occurring on the i2th, i8th-2oth and 2zLth-25th with westerly weather. Of 333 Redwi...
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Letters

01 March 1948
Comments Letters SIRS,--In Vol. xl, p. 245, you say t h a t the taking of food from the water b y Carrion Crows (Corvus c. corone) has apparently not been "previously recorded in our ornithological literature." I have recently had occasion t o search t h e literature for ...
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Letters

01 February 1948
Comments Letters S I R S , -- I t seems a n opportune moment for making a plea t h a t t h e scope of the British Trust Ringing Scheme should be widened by making rings available for use outside t h e British Islands. While we fully appreciate the organizational a n d sup...
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Letters

01 September 1937
Comments Letters SIRS,--I think Mr. David Lack is clearly right in concluding from the scene he describes (antea, p . 82) t h a t the crest of the Goldcrest (Regulus r. anglorum) is an instance of ornamentation functioning as a " threatcolour", and used for t h a t purpo...
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