PREFACE. 



Their plumage dazzles not, but yet can sweeter 

 strains be heard"! 



Let other feathers vaunt the dyes of deepest rainbow 

 flush, 



Give me old England' 1 s nightingale, its robin and 

 its thrush. COOK. 



DESPITE the fact that we live in a small 

 and thickly populated country, we are 

 singularly rich in song birds, thanks to 

 our numerous old furze-clad commons, 

 game preserves, and a healthy sentiment 

 in the great majority of rich and poor 

 alike towards the wee, feathered carol- 

 singers that make grove and hillside 

 ring with their sweet, happy music. 



This little book deals in a concise and 

 popular manner with the appearance, 

 haunts, habits, nests, eggs, songs, and 

 call notes of the winged melodists that 

 breed in various parts of the British 

 Islands. I have endeavoured to describe 

 them in such a way that the reader may 

 be able to identify them for himself or 

 herself in wood and field, and where two 

 species bear a similarity of appearance 



