Our Northern Birds ¹

Abstract

MR. DIXON is a prolific writer, and confines himself almost entirely to one subject. Nevertheless he always succeeds in interesting his readers, and contrives to say something fresh even upon such a trite and thread bare theme as British birds. In a former volume Mr. Dixon took as his subject “Bird-life in a Southern County”; and in the present work he dwells on the great difference between the bird-fauna of the more northern counties of England and Scotland from that of the south of England. Not only are many of the birds of the northern districts normally strangers to the south, either at one season of the year or at all times, but notable differences in their habits are observable. Species, for instance, that sing during winter in the south are silent at that season further north; while others that are permanent residents in the former area are migratory in the latter. And it is certain that from an ornithological point of view the northern counties are more interesting than the southern—and more especially the south-western counties.