PREPARATORY WALK INTO THE COUNTRY, 5 



mellifluous sentences constructed with little regard to common 

 sense. There remains for me, then, only one method of giving 

 a general interest to my descriptions, namely that of occasion- 

 ally digressing from the subject, to connect it with those to 

 which it naturally bears reference. If in the following pages 

 some slight attempts at ornament may sometimes be made, 

 the reader will not discover in them any fabulous incidents, 

 or any facts so decorated as to lose their proper character. 



Making a general inspection of our aerial and terrestrial 

 birds, I might present some statements respecting their distri- 

 bution, and the proportion of resident to migratory species ; or, 

 from facts supplied by observation, I might calculate how 

 many bushels of grain are annually devoured by one set of 

 birds, and how many millions of insects and worms by an- 

 other ; but, leaving such matters to the ingenuity of specula- 

 tive minds, I prefer a visit to the fields, the woods, and the 

 moors, on this beautiful day in the beginning of summer. Some 

 pleasing, if not important, observations may be made, in the 

 course of a long walk, in any part of the country, for, although 

 not a single bird may occur that has not been often seen be- 

 fore, a lover of living nature is hardly ever tired with watch- 

 ing them. 



What first attracts our notice is a colony of Rooks in the 

 tall trees of the garden. In the hole of that broken limb of 

 the old sycamore is a starling's nest, as you may be assured by 

 the loud cries of its greedy young ones. These will suffice to 

 remind us of the Vagatores. A few Sparrows are seen on the 

 road, a beautiful Chaffinch chants his not unpleasing song on 

 the beech-tree, two Green Linnets are flying about the hedge, 

 and on the stone-wall a Corn Bunting creaks out its curious 

 cry. These and other Deglubitores have already received our 

 attention. Leaving the city, we enter a highly cultivated dis- 

 trict, in which the fields, covered with corn and grass, are 

 separated from each other by hawthorn fences and stone-walls. 

 The rains which have lately fallen in profusion have imparted 

 a healthy vigour to the vegetation. The merry carol of the 

 Lark comes from on high, and the lively AVhitethroat, flitting 

 along the hedge, sings its more cheerful than melodious ditty 



