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of science, confining ourselves to facts, and such ex- 

 planations and conclusions based on them as sound 

 logic can justify, and leave fiction and romance to 

 those whom they concern. 



^be IBii'Os at Marorave. 



By J. E. R. McDoNAGH, M.R.C.S., F.Z.S. 



Wargrave is one of the prettiest spots on the 

 river Thames, lying between Shiplake Lock and Marsh 

 Lock, about two miles above Henley. Although only 

 33 miles from London the bird life to be seen there 

 is extraordinary, and it would repay anyone interested 

 in ornithology to visit it in order to watch and take 

 records of the birds he would come across in a two or 

 three days holiday. This past Whitsuntide the weather 

 was lovely and the country could not have looked 

 better, — all the trees well out and fresh, showing off 

 their shades of green, all harmonizing most beauti- 

 fully with one another, and here and there interspersed 

 with some magnificent copper beeches and silver 

 birches, not to mention the flowering trees, such as 

 the may and chesnut in full blossom both red and 

 white, and the guelder rose, with the lovely green 

 grass beneath, all new and decked with numerous 

 different kinds of wild flowers, adding a change of 

 colour to the scene, and the meadows all yellow and 

 white with buttercups and daisies. 



Our first day we came across some Swans with 

 five sweet little cygnets not long hatched, of a 

 chinchilla colour and with not at all a " swanny " 

 look about them ; the parents seemed tremendously 

 proud of them ; and the father was especially pleased 



