John Warham provides an example of what can be done in ornithology. A small, enter- prising, intelligent person, an acute and knowledgeable observer, and pleasant to deal with, he was born in Halifax, Yorkshire, and was educated in Retford, Nottinghamshire. It was here that he studied the birds of a patch in Sherwood Forest, eventually publishing a splendid account of them illustrated with flash photography, Bird-watcher's Delight (Country Life, 1951). His early adult life was interrupted by the Second World War, when he joined the British Army, being demobilised as a Captain in 1946. He then pursued bird photography, spending 12 years travelling around Australia with his wife Pat, visiting offshore islands while she went nursing, writing papers, popular articles, and books about wildlife photography and cinematography (both 1966). When I called on him at his subsequent exhibition in London, the other visitor was a respectful young David Attenborough.