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Thick-Billed Warbler at Fair Isle: A new British Bird

01 March 1956 Comments Main paper AN example of the Thick-billed Warbler (Phragmaticola aedon), a bird from south-east Asia and apparently the first of its species to be recorded in Europe, was captured at Fair Isle on 6th October !955In the fleeting glimpses we obtained of this bird in t...

Begging Responses of Certain Buntings

01 March 1956 Comments Main paper (Ornithological Field Station, Madingley, Cambridge) T H I S paper, which is one of a series of studies of the behaviour of buntings (see references), describes the changes in the begging responses of young Reed and Corn Buntings and Yellowhammers (Emberi...

The Amateur and The Study of Bird Display. Suggestions for Further Work

01 March 1956 Comments Main paper By EDWARD A. ARMSTRONG TWENTY-FIVE years ago ornithological field-studies in this country were almost exclusively the concern of amateurs. The publication of The Handbook (1938-44)--the most notable corporate achievement of amateur ornithology--marked the...

Melodious Warbler and Lesser Grey Shrikes at Fair Isle

01 March 1956 Comments Main paper (Fair Isle Bird Observatory) A SMALL migratory movement of unusual interest reached Fair Isle on 16th September 1955, perhaps coming in from Shetland under fine col conditions overnight, but almost certainly introduced to the area by cyclonic drift due to...

Notes

01 March 1956 Comments Notes Warblers (Hippolais icterina) were watched at Fair Isle, and identification confirmed by trapping- and examination of the wingformula, on 30th May and 9th September 1954. T h e purpose of this note is to draw attention to a useful distinguishing character...

The Interpretation of variation among the Yellow Wagtails

01 March 1956 Comments Main paper THERE is perhaps no other group of Palaearctic birds the variation of which is as puzzling as that of the Yellow W a g t a i l (Motacilla flava) complex. In a recent contribution Williamson (1955) has examined the effect of migration on this phenomenon an...

Fluctuations in Partridge Populations

01 March 1956 Comments Main paper By COLIN MATHESON (National Museum of Wales) A PREVIOUS paper (Matheson, 1953) included a brief note on the appearance of more or less regular cycles of increase and decrease in bags of Partridges (Perdix perdix) in various areas of England and W a l e s ...

Recent Reports

01 June 1955 Comments News and comment Normally April and May provide us with quite a scattering of vagrants from southern and south-eastern Europe, but this year such wanderers seem to have been rather few. There were two reports of a Little Egret (Egretta gar^etta) on St. Mary's (Isles of Sc...

News and Comments

01 June 1955 Comments News and comment N e w Dictionary of Birds.--Work has been going on in earnest for over five years on a New Dictionary of Birds, a centenary enterprise of the British Ornithologists' Union. The formidable task of organising and editing has been undertaken by Sit Landsboro...

Requests for information

01 June 1955 Comments Editorials Effects of the severe winter of 1962-63.--The severe weather of last winter has probably had a considerable effect on the numbers of some species of birds, and an analysis of this is being undertaken by British Birds as for previous hard winters (e.g. 193...

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