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 November 1988
Comments Letters 'Breeding status of the Gad wall in Britain and Ireland' Since the publication of this paper (Brit. Birds 81: 51-66), a number of inaccuracies and sources of additional information have been brought to my attention. Gadwalls Anas strepera did in fact bree...
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Letters

01 June 1986
Comments Letters British rarities in a foreign perspective. In a letter (Brit. Birds 78:51 -52), Norman Elkins hypothesised on the possible route of a single Yellowbrowed Bunting Emberiza chrysophrys which arrived on Fair Isle, Shetland, in October 1980. Contrary ...
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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 January 1985
Comments Letters How many bird species in the world? In a recent book review (Brit. Birds 77: 280) mention is made of the '8,500-odd species' of birds in the world. A similar figure is quoted by the late Leslie Brown in his foreword to A Complete Checklist of the ...
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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 August 1980
Comments Letters Importance of Ireland's Brent Geese In his account of 'Ireland's winter visitors and passage migrants', C. D. Hutchinson (Brit. Birds 73: 72-80) noted that the Brent Goose Branta bernicla is now the most numerous goose in Ireland and concluded ...
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Letters

01 May 1979
Comments Letters A symbol for individuals not adult males The present biological symbols ♂ and ♀ indicate the two sexes, male and female. The suggested introduction of a third symbol {Brit. Birds 71: 544-545) seems strangely illogical. If the...
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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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