PREFACE. 



HTHIS little book is nothing more than an attempt to 

 help those who love birds, but know little about 

 them, to realize something of the enjoyment which I 

 have gained, in work-time as well as in holiday, for 

 many years past, from the habit of watching and listening 

 for my favourites. 



What I have to tell, such as it is, is told in close 

 relation to two or three localities : an English city, an 

 English village, and a well-known district of the Alps. 

 This novelty (if it be one) is not likely, I think, to cause 

 the ordinary reader any difficulty. Oxford is so familiar 

 to numbers of English people apart from its permanent 

 residents, that I have ventured to write of it without 

 stopping to describe its geography ; and I have pur- 

 posely confined myself to the city and its precincts, in 

 order to show how rich in bird-life an English town may 

 be. The Alps, too, are known to thousands, and the 

 walk I have described in Chapter III., if the reader 

 should be unacquainted with it, may easily be followed 

 by reference to the excellent maps of the Oberland in 

 the guide-books of Ball or Baedeker. The chapters 



