CHAPTER I 



" And now the goddess bids the birds appear, 

 Raise all their music and salute the year^ 



Wyatt. 

 " Tlie birds sing many a lovely lay 

 Of God's high praise and of their sweet love-tune'' 



Spenser. 



F we had to distribute the Seasons 

 amonor the birds that are called 

 " British," selecting a notable fowl 

 to represent each, we could hardly 

 overlook the claims of the cuckoo, 

 the nightingale, and the swallow to 

 distinction. But, after all, these are 

 not "thorough Britons." They only 

 come to us for our summer, and when that goes they 

 follow it. Though great numbers of them are British-born, 

 they are at best only Anglo-Continental, Anglo-Asiatic, 

 Anglo- African, and Inter-Oceanic. But our resourceful 

 little islands give us native birds, all our own, that amply 

 serve the Seasons, and represent, with sufficing charm, the 



