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Monthly marathon

01 November 1996 Comments Other The farther of the two birds in plate 144 was named as American Coot Fulica americana (80%), Red-knobbed (exCrested) Coot F. cristata (10%), Common Coot F. atra (7%) and Moorhen Gallinula chloropus (3%), and the nearer as Red-necked Grebe Podiceps grisege...

Recent reports

01 November 1996 Comments News and comment Great Snipe Gallinago media At least 11 up to 1st October, including three on Fair Isle (Shetland) on 20th September. Terek Sandpiper Xenus cinereus Dumbarton (Strathclyde), 22nd-30th September. Crested Lark Galerida cristata Landguard (Suffolk), 2nd a...

News and comment

01 November 1996 Comments News and comment When the latest issue of your favourite magazine arrives through the letter box, do you open it and promptly shake it over the litter bin? All those inserts are presumably disposed of immediately in countless households, at least judging by the comment...

Looking Back

01 November 1996 Comments Other One hundred years ago: 'Nansen's Discovery of the Breeding Habits of Ross's Gull. The "Daily Chronicle" during the past few days has given us the first connected narrative from the pen of the "Hero of the "White North". This account of the greatest adv...

Report on rare birds in Great Britain in 1995

01 November 1996 Comments Main paper After another year of excellent co-operation with many people, the British Birds Rarities Committee presents a comprehensive Report. The BBRC may be perceived as isolated and remote, but it is part of a network involving individual observers, county re...

Letters

01 November 1953 Comments Letters SIRS,--The points which Mr. K. Williamson makes (antea, pp. 231-32) in connection with a remark of mine on the distribution of the Alaska Wren (Troglodytes t. alascensis) (antea, pp. 48-49) are of interest not only in regard t o the evolution of wren race...

Reviews

01 November 1953 Comments Reviews Social Behaviour in Animals. By N. Tinbergen. (Methuen, London, 1953). 12s.6d. IN The Study of Instinct (reviewed in vol. xlv, p. 182) Dr. Tinbergen was concerned with the entire study of animal behaviour and with its results up to 1948. In the present, m...

Notes

01 November 1953 Comments Notes Effective distraction display by Mallard.--As only a few observations have been recorded indicating the effectiveness of distraction display by a parent bird in deflecting the attention of a potential predator from the young [Bird Display, pp. 104-105) t...

Displacement-sleeping in the Avocet and Oystercatcher as a reaction to predators

01 November 1953 Comments Main paper (Illustrations by Robert Gillmor.) MAKKINK'S studies (1936, 1942) on the behaviour of the Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta) and the Oystercatcher (Hasmatopus ostralegus) have shown that, at certain points during intraspecific fighting', both these species m...

The song of the Woodpigeon

01 November 1953 Comments Main paper DURING 1948, one of us (J.S.H.), after listening carefully to the singing- of the Woodpigeon (Columba palumbus) and the recording of a number of its songs, came to the conclusion that the song of this species differed from the generally accepted version, ...

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