BRITISH BIRDS, 

 THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 



In the following pages I shall endeavour, as far as my 

 subject will permit, to avoid mere dry and uninterest- 

 ing detail. It is, of course, quite inconsistent with the 

 nature of the book to omit matter-of-fact descriptions 

 altogether, or even in any very great degree ; but an 

 effort will be made to relieve the whole from wearing 



o 



the appearance of a catalogue in disguise, and to give 

 it as much of a life-like practical character as possible. 

 How many incidents in a school-boy's life are con- 

 nected, in his memory, with some nesting expedition, 

 some recollection of perhaps an accidental discovery 

 of a nest and eggs he had never seen before, or pos- 

 sibly wished and tried to find, but always wished and 

 tried in vain. Such experiences are always pleasant 

 and interesting in their detail to the real lover of 

 birds and their belongings ; and often almost as much 

 so when detailed by others as when reproduced in his 

 own recollections of former days, and their hopes, and 

 plans, and successes, and disappointments, each often 

 renewed, or often repeated under some varying form 

 Why, then, should not such matters stand here and 

 there in these pages ? 



35 



