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Mystery photographs

01 January 1982 Comments Main paper Breaking if not a rule then at least a general tendency, let us identify last month's mystery photograph in the first sentence, as a Long-tailed Duck Clangula hyemalis. This is not a particularly difficult species to identify; on two counts, this is pr...

European news

01 January 1982 Comments Main paper This tenth report includes records from correspondents in 18 European countries. Records awaiting formal verification by national rarity committees are indicated by an asterisk (*). Unless otherwise stated, all records refer to 1981 and to single indiv...

Behaviour of Black-winged Stilts

01 January 1982 Comments Main paper The family Recurvirostridae comprises four genera, two of which are represented in Europe, by the Avocet Recurvirostra avosetta and the Black-winged Stilt Himantopus himantopus. Five subspecies of the latter are recognised, of which the nominate race o...

Movements of Ruddy Ducks during the hard winter of 1978/79

01 January 1982 Comments Main paper Since the first escaped Ruddy Ducks Oxyura jamaicensis bred in Britain in 1960 (King 1976), they have undergone a phenomenal population expansion. In an earlier review of their status, Hudson (1976) estimated a population growth of 25% per annum and, a...

The Colour-Phases of the Fulmar

01 November 1947 Comments Main paper THE Handbook (Vol-, iv, p. 79) contains a statement of mine on the distribution of the colour phases of the Fulmar (Fulmarus g. glatialis) which is erroneous. It runs ;--"proportions of dark birds are-- Brit. Is. up to 2 per cent., except Shetland, where...

Studies of some species Rarely Photographed. XI. The Rufous, Sardinian and Olivaceous Warblers

01 November 1947 Comments Main paper (Plates 32-39)THE unique photographs of these three warblers were taken at Habbaniya on the Euphrates in Iraq during the war by Mr. A. Stubbs, who has contributed some useful notes on all three species as observed in that locality. All three are on the Br...

The Growth of a young Cuckoo

01 November 1947 Comments Main paper A SERIES of observations was made in June, 1946, upon the growth of a young Cuckoo (Cuculus c. canorus) in the nest of a HedgeSparrow (Prunella modularis occidentalis) near Oxford. The nest was in one of the dividing privet hedges of the back gardens of a...

The Tendency of the blackbird and Song-Thrush to breed in their birthplaces

01 November 1947 Comments Main paper THE degree of inbreeding of a population is of obvious importance from the point of view of the differentiation of races and species. An analysis was therefore made of the ringing returns for British Blackbirds (Turdus m. merula) and Song-Thrushes (Turdus...

Notes on the winter territory of a Pair of mute swans

01 November 1947 Comments Main paper by nature Mute Swans (Cygnus olor) are aggressive birds, even in the breeding season they are found together, and are, according to The Handbook, "outside breeding season sociable and often seen in parties." Some (usually) fortnightly notes on the territ...

Cabinet colour-changes in bird-skins and their bearing on racial segregation

01 November 1947 Comments Main paper IN view of the present-day tendency towards the further subdivision, mainly on fine colour distinctions, of the accepted races of some British birds, we think it opportune to place on record some observations which have been made during the course of rece...

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