PREFACE 



THESE sketches of natural history, which it has been 

 a pleasant task to me to edit, are from the hand of a 

 friend of ours, a skilled workman, who has made the 

 study of wild creatures in their native haunts the 

 passion of his life and the exclusive occupation of his 

 leisure hours. His work has led him amongst the 

 most beautiful parts of Surrey and along the line of 

 Kentish coast where Turner loved to paint. The 

 observations are all fresh from nature ; he tells of 

 ( what he has seen and known.' 



J. A. OWEN. 



2091243 



