Letter

01 February 1943 Comments Letters SIRS,--As the Statement in The Handbook of British Birds (Vol. III, p. 109) that the Osprey (Pandion h. hali/ztus) last bred at Loch Arkaig in 1902 is incorrect this should be corrected. A pair nested regularly ever since I can remember up to 1908 and the...
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Notes

01 February 1943 Comments Notes IN February, 1942, seventy-five nesting boxes were put up inone of the oak woods of the Forest of Dean, with the object of encouraging the breeding of insectivorous birds (tits, in particular) and thus alleviating, if possible, the recurrent outbreaks of...
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The Age of the Blackbird

01 February 1943 Comments Main paper THE potential age, the age to which birds can live, has been the subject of several papers, the earlier ones based on records in captivity, e.g. Gurney (1899), Mitchell (1911), Flower (1925), and the later ones on ringing returns, e.g. Witherby (1926), Ni...
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The Sexual Displays of Swallows

01 May 1941 Comments Main paper THE quantitative aspects of the reproduction of the Swallow (Hirundo r. rustica) have been intensively studied in the enquiries of the British Trust for Ornithology (antea, Vol. XXIX, pp. 3-21, Vol. XXX, pp. 98-116) and in many other surveys; but there re...
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Nest-Sanitation

01 May 1941 Comments Main paper Faeces carried; no data for first few days ; at a late stage young defaecate from the opening ; if deposited on " doorstep " they are carried; if they fall clear they are left, even if conspicuous (B.H.R., R.G.A., A.H.M.C). [Voided at entrance of nest and...
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Notes

01 May 1941 Comments Notes WHEN reading Mr. D. Lack's article on the Chaffinch (antea, p. 216), I was particularly interested in the paragraph on " female song." Just over a year ago (early in March, 1940) I heard at Brent Park, Hendon, a bird singing, which I did not recognize at...
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Seventeenth-Century "Poultry"

01 May 1941 Comments Main paper has recently come to my notice a 26-page pamphlet by Adam Shewring, entitled The Plain-dealing Poulterer, and published in London in 1699. The author in his preface states that he has " thought it good after my many years experience, and knowledge gotten ...
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