12 The Study of Wild Birds 
In 1860 my father built a house in Quarr Wood near Ryde 
Isle of Wight and then I had a chance of running wild and learning 
to climb. I remember well my first Song Thrush’s nest and first 
Mistle Thrush’s, both in the same tree in Quarr Wood. This was 
also my first tree. I was then just 8} years of age. 
It was now that an old family friend, seeing my mania for birds, 
presented me with a book on British Birds’ Eggs with coloured 
figures, by Richard Laishley, published in 1858. 
That settled the matter and I read and re-read that book until 
I knew it by heart. Nor have I yet discarded it. Whether it 
was found impossible to keep me in clothes owing to my tree- 
climbing or whether it was considered possible that I might develop 
into an egging maniac, my father lost no chance from this time 
onward verbally to discourage me from birdsnesting. But it was 
too late and as usual, | became more determined than ever to 
persevere in it. 
But it was from my father that | drew both my love of birds 
and the elements of the science of nest-hunting. For when he was 
in want of young Linnets to place under a course of vocal instruction, 
it was he who took me out to the wild downs in the interior of the 
Isle of Wight and lying down, field-glass in hand, soon located 
the nests of the Linnet in the prickly gorse bushes by watching the 
movements of the old birds from afar. I quickly profited by such 
admirable teaching and it was not long before I could find Yellow- 
hammers and the rarer Cirl Buntings by employing the same tactics, 
without a field-glass. 
A visit to Netley Abbey, in the spring of 1862, brought me in 
touch with what I looked upon as an immense bird, the homely Jack- 
daw. They were nesting in the holes in the crumbling walls and my 
father hoisted me up on his shoulders and I gathered many eggs 
and ended up by slipping and subsiding upon his high silk hat 
with disastrous results to hat and eggs. In those days gentlemen 
