INTRODUCTION. 



No matter what the time of year, or place, in which 

 we take a country ramble, some feathered favourite, 

 we may be sure, will greet us with welcome note, 

 or arrest our attention by some peculiarity of 

 habit. In the early spring, as we wander through 

 the larch plantations just coming into leaf, the 

 songs of the Blackcap and the Garden Warbler 

 reach the ear before we can see the authors of the 



