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News and comment

01 September 1973 Comments News and comment Pickled birds on the menu A recent press statement by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds draws attention to a distasteful matter not yet covered by legislation: the importing of pickled birds from Cyprus. It is thought that five to s...

Letters

01 September 1973 Comments Letters Scope of 'British Birds' I have been receiving British Birds for a few years now, and it appears to me that the present trend is to include more and more foreign material. For example, the March 1973 issue contained papers on the iden...

Notes

01 September 1973 Comments Notes Unusual hunting behaviour of Sparrowhawks During February 1972, at Benacre, Suffolk, I spent several hours observing a pair of Sparrowhawks Accipiter nisus hunting over a particular field which had been left to seed. This field was the feeding ...

Studies of less familiar birds 171: Red-necked Nightjar

01 September 1973 Comments Main paper Squatting motionless on the ground among dead wood and sand litter, the Red-necked Nightjar Caprimulgus ruficollis is made almost invisible by its disruptive pattern of grey, rufous and buff, with heavy streaks on the crown and scapulars characteristic...

Identification of some scarce or difficult west Palearctic species in Iran

01 September 1973 Comments Main paper Following the joint initiatives of Dr D. A. Scott and P. A. D. Hollom, and through the courtesy and assistance of the Iranian Department of Environmental Conservation, an expedition visited Iranian Baluchistan between 31st March and 19th April 1972. It...

The buff variety of the Collared Dove

01 September 1973 Comments Main paper The most striking visual difference between the Collared Dove Streptopelia decaocto and the Barbary Dove, a domesticated descendant of the African Collared Dove S. roseogrisea, is that the former is darker and greyer, with blackish primaries, and the l...

Recent reports

01 September 1973 Comments News and comment An adult Purple Heron Ardea purpurea stayed at Minsmere (Suffolk) from 1st to 18th and an immature remained there from 9th to 24th, while at Sandown (Isle of Wight) one arrived on 17th. In Lincolnshire single Little Egrets Egretta garzetta occurred at ...

Reviews

01 October 1947 Comments Reviews More Birds of the Day. By Eric Hosking and Cyril Newberry. (Collins, London, 1946). 125 6d. net. The great popularity of t h e authors' Birds of the Day has led t h e m to follow this up with a sequel providing a no less admirable picture gallery of Briti...

Notes

01 October 1947 Comments Notes ON June 22nd, 1947, in a wood just outside Calais, I had a good view of a male Golden Oriole (Oriolus 0. oriolus), sitting in sunlight on a bare twig of a lombardy poplar, about 30 feet from the ground. It called continuously for about eight minutes. The...

Studies of some species rarely photographed. X. The Purple Heron

01 October 1947 Comments Main paper (Plates 26-31), THE striking series of photographs of the Purple Heron (Ardea p, purpurea) now published, were taken in the district of the Camargue (Rhone Delta) in May and June of the present year, 1947. This species is characteristically a reed-bed ne...

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News and comment

Letters

Notes

Studies of less familiar birds 171: Red-necked Nightjar

Identification of some scarce or difficult west Palearctic species in Iran

The buff variety of the Collared Dove

Recent reports

Reviews

Notes

Studies of some species rarely photographed. X. The Purple Heron

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