1888-89.] -^ -^^2^ Notes on Bird Life, &c. 261 



any claim to deep scientific knowledge, and you will there- 

 fore be kind enough to consider these remarks as merely a 

 little bird-gossip. 



On arriving at my native " cycle town," as it is now called, 

 on the 1st of August last, as an experiment I told a cabman that 

 I wished to go to the residence of the man most esteemed and 

 respected in that neighbourhood, and asked whei^e he proposed 

 to put me down. He smiled, thought for a moment, and 

 then named correctly my destination — for I may mention that 

 my old friend and host, besides being a great lover and pro- 

 tector of birds, is not unmindful of the wants and desires of 

 his fellow-creatures, but is actuated by a wide philanthropy, 

 and is consequently well known to all. Among many acts of 

 benevolence, he has provided a drill-hall for the volunteers ; 

 and a few years ago he bought a disused jail and converted it 

 into a free library, to which he is now adding a large refer- 

 ence library.-^ I happened to mention this curious mutation 

 in the uses of property to that large-hearted man amongst us, 

 Dr "Walter C. Smith, who made an observation highly charac- 

 teristic of him, and which I know will meet with a warm 

 response from you all. He said, " Oh that we could convert 

 all our jails into free libraries ! " When residing with my 

 greatly valued old friend, who is much my senior, I always 

 sleep with an open window, in order that I may listen to the 

 birds in the early morning — for, in the words of Eichard 

 Jefferies, "it is sweet, on awaking in the early morn, to 

 listen to the small bird singing on the tree." One of the first 

 sounds is usually the very pleasing twittering warble, followed 

 by that long-drawn-out cadence of the swallow — notes always 

 associated with bright summer days. These are followed 

 by the cooing of three species of wild pigeons, all of which 

 breed in or near the garden. There is the universally 

 known note of the cushat, then the short jerking coo of the 

 stock-dove, and at intervals the low murmuring or purring 

 coo of the turtle-dove. The latter always reminds me in 

 some degree of what is called " the Dutchman's organ " — that 



' A similar case has just occurred in the town of Selkirk, where Mr T. Craig 

 Brown, the historian of Selkirkshire, has bought the old town jail, fitted it up 

 as a library and reading-room, and presented it to the inhabitants on the con- 

 dition that it should be upheld under the Free Libraries' Act. 



