Preface. ix 



were obtruding myself on the attention of ornithologists, 

 I should feel as audacious as the Robin which is at this 

 moment, in my neighbour's outhouse, sitting on eggs for 

 which, with characteristic self-confidence, she has chosen 

 a singular resting-place in an old cage, once the prison- 

 house of an ill-starred Goldfinch. 



There are few days, from March to July, when even 

 the shortest stroll may not reveal something of interest 

 to the careful watcher. It was pleasant, this brilliant 

 spring morning, to find that a Redstart, perhaps the 

 same individual noticed on page 120, had not forgotten 

 my garden during his winter sojourn in the south ; and 

 that a pair of Pied Flycatchers, the first of their species 

 which I have known to visit us here, were trying to 

 make up their minds to build their nest in an old gray 

 wall, almost within a stone's throw of our village church. 



KlNGHAM, OXON. 



April 24, 1886. 



