HEROXRY DISTURBED. 21 



round the summits of the trees, as if unwilling to 

 leave the place until they had discovered the 

 cause of the general alarm ; while a few of the 

 less timid even resumed their position on the 

 high boughs. I now raised my glass, and had a 

 capital view of one splendid fellow as he stood, 

 like a guardian angel, over his nest, upright as 

 a falcon, his long, graceful neck extended to the 

 utmost, and his keen glance directed all around, 

 as if it could pierce even through the gloom of 

 the dark wood. 



I need not tell you what a valuable assistant 

 a good spy-glass proves to the practical ornitho- 

 logist ; you have often heard me speak of its 

 advantages in former times; it is, indeed, my 

 constant companion ; for although blest with as 

 keen sight as most of my fellow creatures, and al- 

 though so well acquainted with birds as generally 

 to be able to distinguish a species by the cha- 

 racter of its flight at any reasonable distance, 

 yet in investigating the habits of many of the 

 less accessible tribes during the breeding-season, 

 in observino; the birds which haunt the summits 

 of the Downs, or the great congregations of sand- 

 pipers and flocks of wading birds on the coast, 

 and satisfactorily making out, not only the 

 various species, but even different gradations of 

 plumage in each, I am deeply indebted to my 



