Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/479

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who for any purpose have had to estimate the reliability of records sent in by different people—of such occurrences, say, as the arrival of migrants—will have found that the field of observation of many persons has curious limits. Many sportsmen are keen and accurate observers of game-birds and wildfowl, and yet know practically nothing of the other birds they so constantly meet; while people who have earned and deserve a reputation as good ornithologists on account of their wide general acquaintance with birds and their eggs, are often quite unable to recognize any but the most obvious of bird notes; a fact which at once discounts the value of their records of the arrival of summer migrants. It is remarkable, for example, how few people can distinguish the song of the Redstart; and yet the arrival of this bird in the spring is often made known by its song for more than a week before a chance occurrence gives a glimpse of the bird itself. The Lesser Whitethroat, again, is a bird which, on account of its retiring habits, is very generally overlooked, in spite of the fact that the loud notes at the end of its song make its presence always easy to detect; even in districts—such as parts of Cheshire and the Plain of York—where the Lesser Whitethroat is as common as the Sedge-Warbler, one is often told that it is extremely scarce. Another note which few people seem to know is the scrappy song of the Whinchat, a song which may be compared to that of a Whitethroat borne to the ear in a broken-up fashion on a gusty wind.

The Wood-Wren's song is certainly more commonly recognized, but in this case again it will often be found that people of local repute as ornithologists do not know the note, and are thus quite unable to judge of the bird's presence and numbers in any particular district. It may be here worth while to mention the extraordinary abundance of the Wood-Wren in Wales—at any