PREFACE. 
THE substance of the following pages originally ap- 
peared in the well-known natural history columns of the 
Field newspaper, during the years 1865-6 and 7. They 
were fortunate in attracting considerable attention, and 
in eliciting from numerous readers a wish for their 
separate publication. | 
With some diffidence I now comply with that desire, 
for my little work makes no pretension to be an exhaus- 
tive history of the birds it treats upon, but is a simple 
record of the results of twenty years’ observations in a 
district of great natural interest. My occupations took 
me much out of doors, and I omitted no opportunity of 
jotting down every fact that came under my notice, that 
might bear on the life-history of our feathered friends. 
Some of my notes are but bare records of the occurrence 
