BLACKBIRDS, NIGHTINGALES, ETC. 337 



must either get it again, or go rapidly downhill. How 

 much better, therefore, to get it again ! 



I had meant, in this last chapter, besides touching 

 a little more fully on some points to which I have 

 here and there referred, to say something about the 

 heron, nightjar, cuckoo, barn-owl, wagtail, and a few 

 other birds ; but I have managed so clumsily that I 

 now find myself at the furthest possible limit of space, 

 without having left myself room either for the one or 

 the other. With regard to the nightjar, I have kept 

 an observational diary on the nesting habits of a pair 

 of these birds, which was published in the Zoologist 

 for, I think, September 1899. From this I had 

 intended to quote, as in the case of the great plover, 

 but it is too late to begin now. All these birds, 

 therefore, must wait a little, but I will not forget 

 them should I ever write another book of this kind. 



