Hastings Rarities

The Hastings Rarities were a series of records of rare birds added to the British list on the basis of hundreds of reports, supported by preserved specimens, from George Bristow (1863–1947), a taxidermist and gunsmith of St Leonards-on-Sea, a town on the south coast of England.

However, most records recommended for rejection were of specimens that had passed through the hands of George Bristow (1863–1947), a taxidermist and gunsmith of St Leonards-on-Sea in the borough of Hastings.

It was clear that Bristow was suspected of having been the perpetrator of a series of frauds, carried out from the 1890s over at least the first two, and possibly three, decades of the 20th century, through importing bird specimens from outside the British Isles, and selling them to wealthy ornithologists, such as Walter Rothschild, as having been procured from the Hastings area.

As the suspect records covered nearly four decades, many had been incorporated into books about birds in Britain, including major ornithological reference works, and there was resistance from some ornithologists to accepting the deletions.

David Bannerman, in the late stages of completing his monumental The Birds of the British Isles (12 vols, 1933–63), decided to maintain his faith in the validity of the controversial Hastings records and ignore the decision to delete them from the list.