BRITISH BIRDS 
THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 
In the following pages I shail endeavour, as far as my subject 
will permit, to avoid mere dry and uninteresting detail. It is, of 
course, quite inconsistent with the nature of the book to omit 
matter-of-fact descriptions altogether, or even in any very great 
degree; but an effort will be made to relieve the whole from 
wearing the appearance of a catalogue in disguise, and to give it 
as much of a life-like practical character as possible. How many 
meidents in a school-boy’s life are connected, in his memory, 
with some nesting expedition, some recollection of, perhaps, an 
accidental discovery of a nest and eggs he had never seen before, 
or possibly wished and tried to find, but always wished and 
tried in vain. Such experiences are always pleasant and interesting 
in their detail to the real lover of birds and thcir belongings ; 
and often almost as much so when detailed by others as when 
reproduced in his own recollections of former days, and thew 
nopes, and plans, and successes, and disappointments, each often 
renewed, or often repeated under some varying from. Why, 
then, should not such matters stand here and there in these 
pages P 
Our plan, therefore, will be to omit all special notice of the 
