278 LORD LILFORD 



show him a few phases of English bird-life that 

 are now uncommon and, indeed, only casual at 

 the period to which I wish to carry him with me 

 in memory. I must explain that the incidents 

 that I purpose to relate belong to no one special 

 day, or indeed, to any particular year, but that 

 all of them have occurred to myself personally 

 in the localities of which I treat, and might 

 without improbability have happened in a day's 

 walk at the season above mentioned. 



' We will, then, turn out after a cup of coffee 

 at daylight, and providing ourselves with warm 

 clothing walk along the meadows on the right 

 bank of the river in its downward course, which 

 is a good deal impeded by sheets of treacherous 

 ice, but still has many reaches of unfrozen 

 water. The snow lies thinly on the ground, but 

 under the high trees between the house and the 

 river the dead leaves are visible, and we are 

 certain to see a considerable congregation of 

 birds of various species seeking their break- 

 fast. Chaffinches are the predominant and 

 perhaps most conspicuous members of the 

 assembly, and it is more than probable that a 

 few of their northern cousins, the Bramblings, 



