INTRODUCTION. 3 



the ocean shore ; nay, even in the close city street the 

 poor Sparrow's chirp has a friendly sound. 



Charles Waterton was perhaps the most famous of all 

 who loved and sheltered birds. Walton Hall, where he 

 settled down after his world-wide wanderings, was ad- 

 mirably fitted by nature, as well as partly by its owner, 

 for his purpose. It had all the varieties of soil which 

 could entice different animals, and a lake of twenty-five 

 acres. Around the park the owner built a wall eight 

 feet high, at a cost of 9,000, which he saved from the 

 wine he never drank. 



There was a swamp for Peewits, a heronry of forty 

 nests, beyond it a rise, upon which at one time 5,000 

 Woodpigeons were counted. There was a grotto, in 

 which the owner used to sit to talk to the Robins that 

 hopped upon his shoes ; and in severe weather, boiled 

 potatoes were placed on the islands for the Jackdaws. 

 No shot was ever fired ; there were no dogs, and no 

 keepers. Happy the birds that found shelter there ; 

 they fed on their kind benefactor's bounty whilst they 

 lived, and many of them, stuffed by his own hands, 

 adorned his museum when they died. 



The varying terms used for flocks of birds seem to 

 me highly interesting. Thus we have : A covey of 

 partridges ; a wisp of snipe ; a flight of doves ; a siege 

 of herons; a pack of grouse; a stand of plovers; a 

 clattering of choughs ; a nide of pheasants ; a bevy of 

 quails ; a muster of peacocks ; a building of rooks ; a 

 plump of wild fowl ; a cast of hawks ; a flock of geese ; 

 and a watch of nightingales. This last hath a pleasant 

 sound. 



It is thought that the most remarkable note uttered 



