| Brooke Bond | PG Tips | British Birds

	01 The Mute Swan A stately fowl is the mute swan. In snowy plumage with arched wings, bent neck, orange bill and black knob on forehead it looks a royal bird.Its looks do not belie it. An act of Parliament of the time of Queen Elizabeth I, declared all unmarked swans property of the Crown. However she gave permission to keep swans and allowed swan marks to be favoured subjects. Certain companies of the City of London still have swans on the Thames.
	02 A Pair Of Mallards The Mallard or Wild Duck is probably the best known of out smaller water fowl, and has the distinct of being the ancestor of Aylesbury, Runner and such breeds of domestic duck. Token of their ancestry will be seen in the curly tail feathers of the drakes. These smart and saucy tail feathers are the unique distinct of the mallard, who is indeed a lovely little fellow, what with his bottle-green head, white collar, chestnut breast, grey flanks, brownish back and remarkable tail.
	03 The Moorhen Few birds are more familiar in the English countryside than the dapper Moorhen. It is to be seen on most waters even on the wayside pond. And what a smart creature it is in its dark olive green plumage, set off by some white on its side, its white under tail coverts and its scarlet frontal shield to say nothing of its green legs with bright red garters. It builds a bulky nest at the pond side, cock and hen sharing in the duties of incubating the eggs and looking after the quaint little fluffy black chicks.
	04 The Avocet The elegant Avocet an elegant study in white and black on long grey legs was formerly well known is eastern England but the reclamation of the Fen district drove it away. It is lost to us as a breeding species. However in 1947 4 pairs returned to nest on Havergate Island on the east coast. This colony has done well steadily increasing and in 1952 40 pairs reared over 100 young. Once more we can claim the Avocet as a truly British bird.
	05 The Blackbird The blackbird is one of the best known British birds its dark shape as it hops about on the lawn seeking worms being a familiar site. The cock with his black plumage orange-yellow bill and orange encircled eye, is a handsome fellow, also a good parent, assisting his mate in finding food for their brood and in the care of the young, which are fed chiefly worms.
	06 The Tern Or Sea Swallow There is no more exquisite sprite than the Tern or Sea Swallow as it floats over the blue summer waves of alights to pose with upheld wings, by its nest and eggs. The Common Tern is the most numerous species in southern Britain, and the Arctic Tern in the north of our islands. The two are so much alike as to be indistinguishable to the layman. The bird depicted here is an Arctic Tern. Several other species of tern breed on the coasts of Britain.
	07 The Heron Tall and stately stalks the Heron, a grey shape gliding to the water's edge, to advance a pace at a time through the shallows and scan the current with keen eye. Let a fish come by and with lightening lunge the fisherman has it. He holds it clicking in his bill for a minute, water drops flying then somehow turns it so that it lies with its head down his throat, gives a gulp and swallows it. For a few moments he stands in thoughtful pose, then sips a drop of water and moves to look for the next fish
	08 The Great Spotted Woodpecker A bird of the trees is the great spotted woodpecker. Is feet are adapted for climbing , its tiff tail feathers make a rest, and its stout bill is excellent for drilling in timber, whether to make a nest hole or in search of wood boring insects. In person it is black and white with scarlet under tail coverts, plus, in the case of the male, a little red on the back of the head. In spring it hammers on a chosen branch, making a drumming noise that carries far through the woods
	09 The Herring Gull The Herring Gull is one of the best known birds of harbour and shore. Its screams greet alike the trawlers bringing fish to a northern port and the tourists on a southern pier. It is ever ready to snatch a fish from a net or catch a piece of bun thrown by a friend. The adult is a handsome creature in its snowy white plumage with grey mantle, black-tipped wings, pale pink legs and feet, and yellow bill splashed with scarlet, while its red-rimmed lemon eyes are sharp indeed.
	10 The Long-Tailed Tit A fairy mite is the Long-tailed Tit and it builds a fairy nest. This consists of a ball of moss, spider silk and grey lichens, lined with quantities of soft feathers. Herein are laid a dozen or more tiny eggs so small and so fragile it seems almost impossible that chicks will emerge from them; but they do, and soon the cradle is full of eager babies. how they all lie within and get fed in turn is a mystery of which only the parent birds know the solution.
	11 The Dipper This spritely little bird - clad in brown-black with a white bib, is a lover of dancing waters. We find it on the hurrying stream that rushes recklessly from the hills. The spot that pleases the Dipper best is the waterfall. here it plays in and out of the current, gathering grubs, etc, and in the springtime builds its nest. The nest, a well made, dome structure of moss, grass and so on, is usually under a ledge of the rocks, often where, its moss is kept green by spray from the fall.
	12 The Night Jar The Night jar, Fern Owl or Goatsucker, comes here in the late spring to make the twilight vibrate with its curious purring song. It is a lover of the night, spending the day at rest and waiting for the sun to set before it takes wing in pursuit of moths and other insects. Its huge gape helps in their capture. It was this enormous mouth that led the people of olden days to believe it sucked milk from goats. The two eggs are laid on the bare ground without an apology for a nest.
	13 The Coot The coot, sometimes called the bald headed coot in allusion to its white frontal shield, is a common bird of our larger pools lakes and river backwaters. Clad in dark steel-grey, its long toes curiously fringed and lobed, it is perfectly at home on, and under the water. it makes its bulky nest of reeds and rushes in some quiet nook, both cock and hen working hard to build it, sharing not only this labour but that of incubating the eggs and looking after the young. They are devoted parents.
	14 The Curlew The Curlew comes in Spring to meadows and moor to find a spot where it can place its four handsome eggs. Long of bill, on lengthy legs, it is a member of the wader tribe. Its silvery whistle is one of the most beautiful of sounds. Son the chicks hatch, active, fluffy mites that run after their parents through the herbage, They grow quickly and soon are as big as the old birds, when all fly off to estuary and shore where they find a good living at the edge of the tide.
	15 The Hen Harrier Once common in most parts of the British Isles, Owing its name to the poultry keeper's fears for her chickens, the Hen Harrier, is now rare in this country. To find it nesting one must visit such places as the islands of the Orkney Group. It was on mainland Orkney that our picture was obtained. It shows a female at her nest tending her five young ones. Her owl-like facial disc should be noted for its characteristic of these fine hawks, even if not so obvious in the pale grey-blue male.
	16 The Robin There are few birds more familiar or better loved than the Robin or Redbreast. Its song delights us nearly all the year round. It comes with charming impertinence to take food - not only from the bird table, but from the window sill.It is only when it has a nest on its mind that it becomes shy and elusive. Here we have a family in a nook of the ivy on the garden wall, the old bird diligently feeding the young ones in their immature spotted plumage.
	17 The Pheasant There are few more handsome birds than a cock Pheasant. It is said that the Romans introduced Pheasant to Britain, but there have been many importations at various times and a variety of types may be met with in our woods. There is the cock with light shoulders and a wide collar about his neck, the bird without a collar known as the Old English pheasant, and a freak that has lately appeared, a very dark bird, termed the melanistic mutant
	18 The Puffin This delightful personality of the shore bears many names. In addition to Puffin it is known as the Sea Parrot, Tamie Norie, Bottle Nose and Coulter Neb. its great beak, decked out in horny plates by way if breeding season adornment makes it look like a wee clown of the sea. Its eye has a triangular setting. Its smart black and white plumage, plus its orange feet and legs, add to the whole effect. In short the Puffin whether on the rocks, among the pink thrift, or on the blue waves, is a joy to watch.
	19 The Turtle Dove The turtle dove is one of the most charming of the pigeon tribe. It is a migrant, returning late to our fields and thickets. May is often here before its deep-throated co comes floating through the air and we see its pretty mottled brown form set off by a white collar round the throat. It makes a fragile platform in hedge or bush, lays two white eggs and hereon rears its fat ugly squabs. For a while its sleepy coo delights us, then it falls silent, and soon parents and offspring are away overseas.
	20 The Bittern A strange bird is the Bittern, that inhabit of the Fenlads and the reed beds, which once common in Britain, was exterminated as a breeding species, but has come back and is now well re-established on the Norfolk Broads. Here in early summer we may hear the male calling, uttering that booming note like the bellow of a bull or the roar of the foghorn. Here too the female makes her nest in the depths of the reed bed, and rears her quaint chicks, so strange looking in sandy-red down with greenish beaks and feet.
	Many thanks to Gerry for scanning this set to finish the collection 47 years after its initial inception.

"You could vacuum my lap - Nina needs somewhere to sit"
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