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The new protection of birds act

01 December 1954 Comments Main paper LONG after those who originally conceived it have died of old age or frustration, the Protection of Birds Act, 1954, came into force on December 1st, bringing to an end well over thirty years of miserable procrastination and repealing the whole of no les...

Photographic studies of some less familiar birds, LXII. Snowy Owl

01 December 1954 Comments Main paper (Plates 69-72). As these photographs well show, the Snowy Owl (Nyctea scandiaca) is an impressive creature, the adult male (plate 72) being white or creamy-white, sometimes unmarked or practically so and at most having only sparse scattering of bars and s...

The pattern of migration in 1953 at the East coast bird observatories

01 December 1954 Comments Main paper T H E spring migration on the East Coast of Britain in 1953 showed remarkably little pattern. All the Observatories reported a lean season without any notable " r u s h e s " of migrants. On April 6th there was a minor cyclonic drift movement to Fair Isle...

The pattern of migration in 1953 at the Irish Sea bird observatories

01 December 1954 Comments Main paper T H E present paper is based on reports published by the four southwestern Bird-Observatories, Bardsey, Great Saltee, Lundy, and Skokholm. These reports are restricted to a general description of the main movements of each species, and the field-seasons v...

Letters

01 December 1954 Comments Letters SIRS,--In his paper on "The snail-eating behaviour of Thrushes and Blackbirds" (antea, p. 38) D. Morris states that "the snail-shell is held by the rim of its aperture," but I do not think that he can be right. If a bird holds the shell by its rim alone i...

Reviews

01 December 1954 Comments Reviews The Birds of the British Isles. By D. A. Bannerman and G. E. Lodge. (Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh, 1954). Vol. 3. 45s. THIS third volume completes the Passerines, covering the warblers, thrushes, chats, nightingales, Robin etc., wrens and swallows in the same...

Notes

01 December 1954 Comments Notes Co. Wexford.--Following a period of easterly winds in May, 1953, several notable rarities occurred at Great Saltee, Co. Wexford. Among these were two additions to the Irish List--a Nightingale (Luscinia megarhyncha) and a Tawny Pipit (Anthns campestris), ...

The migration of the Iceland Merlin

01 December 1954 Comments Main paper (Fair Isle Bird Observatory). T H E large size of the Merlins (Falco columbarins) trapped when on passage at Fair Isle in 1950-1951 led me to doubt the statement in The Handbook (Vol. I l l , p . 23) that resident British birds are augmented in autumn by ...

Letters

01 September 1954 Comments Letters SIRS,--I read with great interest the paper by Desmond Morris (antea, pp. 33-49) and the subsequent letter by A. J. Bruce (antea, p. 215) in which this subject is discussed. Bruce's theory, that a thrush (Turdus sp.) cannot afford to use its feet owing to...

Reviews

01 September 1954 Comments Reviews Report on Somerset Birds, 1952: 39ft Report of the Ornithological Section of the Somersetshire Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. Obtainable from G. H. E. Young, Bank House, Martock, Somerset. 5s. Ornithological Notes, Bristol District, 1952. Edited by H. H. Davis...

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The new protection of birds act

Photographic studies of some less familiar birds, LXII. Snowy Owl

The pattern of migration in 1953 at the East coast bird observatories

The pattern of migration in 1953 at the Irish Sea bird observatories

Letters

Reviews

Notes

The migration of the Iceland Merlin

Letters

Reviews

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