IMPRESSIONS OF EN(JL1SI1 r,IKM)-LlFE 



Next to 0111- Tiativo bii-ds, tliere are ])i-obably none of 

 more g'eneral interest to tlie average American natnre- 

 lover than the liirds of England. Personally, I confess that 

 my desire to see and hear the Nightingale, Skylai-k, Black- 

 bird, Redbreast, and other chai-acteristic English species, 

 in their haunts, has been nioic intense than that which has 

 led me to the distant homes of tropical birds. I say "in 

 their haunts," with emi)hasis, foi- T have at times with diffi- 

 culty avoided hearing these bii'ds in cages; an unfortunate 

 enough experience in itself, and one which, having long in 

 mind a pilgrimage to their home, would have de])rived a 

 first impression of half its force. 



This longing to meet English birds at hcmie is in i)art 

 due to the fact that they live in England, in part to the ])la('e 

 they occupy in English literature, and in part to a desire to 

 compare them with our own birds. 



A meeting with the same birds in France or Germany 

 would not possess half the charm of an initial acquaintance 

 in England. Nearly, if not all, that we know and have read 

 of English birds, leads us to associate them with ]jastoral 

 England, with copse and hedgerow, down and moor; with 

 thatched roof and gray spire. Foi- these attractive mental 

 pictures, we have to thank Wordsworth, Shelley, Coleridge, 

 Cowper, and other makers of English literature, to whose 

 influence we must largely attribute the widespread interest 

 in English birds, which, until recently, at least, have been 

 better known by name to most Americans than have been 

 our commonest native species. 



So far as birds are concerned, however, the i)oets can 

 only stimulate our desires without gratifying them, and the 

 comparison of English birds with ours is obviously out of 

 the question until one has seen and heard both. Even then 



