C^ O N T E N T S . 



CHAPTER I. 



AT BREAKFAST, DINNER, TEA, AND SUPPER. 



^Vhat the World would be like without Birds— Their t'ses in 

 Keeping down Insects— How Nature Provides for Birds— 

 A Birds' Restaurant in Winter— Cheeky Charlie and No-Tail 

 Johnny— The Blue Tit and the Kestrel Hawk— Selfishness 

 of Rohin Redbreasts - Thelndusti-iousStarling-TownBirds' 

 Ignorance of Rural Things -Wise and Foolish Rooks— How 

 Privation Spoils Birds' Morals -How Sea-Gulls Feed- 

 Birds that Live upon Flies— Why Birds Put their Heads 

 on One Side— Birds that Catch Fi.-<h— Birds that Prey on 

 other Birds— Differences between Individual Birds of the 

 same Species- What Owls Like— Skuas : the Robbers of the 

 Air— Curious Accidents to Birds in Catching their Prey 



CHAPTER II. 

 SOME REMARKABLE NESTS AND EGGS. 



The Author's Delight at Finding his First Bird's-nest— 

 Some Birds better Nest-builders than others of the same 

 Species— Instances of Birds Departing from Nesting Rules 

 —Wise and Foolish, Idle and Industrious Birds— Feathered 

 Thieves— Birds that Take in Lodgers— Non-Gregarious 

 Birds that Dwell Together— Ancestral Homes of Birds- 

 Nests in Curious Situations— Strange Materials used for 

 Xests— Accidents to Nest-builders— Birds that never Build 

 Nests for Themselves— Prudent Birds that Build Spare 

 Xests— Ground-building Birds— The Cock Sparrow and 

 the Fiffhling Roosters . ....••• 



32 



