A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE more minute — than that which our predecessors had to do. It is for us to accumulate masses of minor facts relating to the habits, movements and economy of birds, to serve as material out of which may in time be evolved some definite knowledge of the migration of birds — a subject we as yet know very little about. Of the movements, and even the relative abundance in the county, of one class of birds — the waders, usually lumped together as ' sand- pipers ' — we are almost entirely ignorant ; and the few, like myself, who would gladly pay more attention to them, have next to no opportunities for doing so. So far, as Lord Lilford has said before me, our county is only half observed ; we want definite facts recorded every year (authenti- cated, in the case of birds with which the observer is not personally well acquainted, by specimens), and we want observations from every part of the county, and especially from the larger preserved estates, from very few of which I have at present reports sent to me. The literature bearing on the subject of Northamptonshire birds is, as Lord Lilford says, very meagre. Morton's Natural History of North- amptonshire (17 1 2) entitles him to be looked upon as the Gilbert White of our county. Baker's History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire (1822- 30) contains a few references to the subject. In addition. Lord Lilford's Birds of Northamptonshire and Neighbourhood, published, practically, in three editions (1880-83, 1893, and 1895, but the first two imperfect, and only printed for private circulation), with a few papers in the Journal of the Northamptonshire Natural History Society (those by Lord Lilford were mostly printed in duplicate in the Zoologist) and a few scattered notices in the Zoologist and Field, constitute the whole literature of the subject. To Lord Lilford's work I must acknowledge my immense indebted- ness, without the help of which, with my limited personal opportunities, the adequate performance of the present undertaking would have been impossible. When a bird is hereinafter described as a ' resident,' I desire it to be understood as defining the species to be resident, though the individuals are probably all to some extent migratory. A ' winter visitor ' is a bird that appears with some regularity during the autumn, and makes a stay, only modified by the vicissitudes of weather, until some time in the following spring. It will be observed that I have excluded several species mentioned by Lord Lilford, but a reference to his pages will show that they occurred outside the boundaries of our county. In cases where the record of a bird's occurrence is open to doubt, or its appearance is due to artificial introduction, the entry is placed within square brackets. Brackets placed round the name of the original describer of a species indicate that he did not employ the generic name which is now adopted. 112
