1 62 A YEAR WITH NATURE. 



Under the eaves of the cottage the House Martin is busy 

 feeding its young brood; the Swallow is dropping in the 

 village pool, and dexterously catching myriads of insects; the 

 Swifts have young in the welcome shelter afforded them under 

 the roof of the village school, and the smallest of the Swallow 

 tribe the Sand Martin inhabits the parish sand-pit in large 

 numbers. 



'Over the marshes crieth a Curlew; 

 Wild is its music, weird is its home 5 

 Over the desolate bits of black water, 

 Over the hoar, withered grass it is borne.' 



To a lover of country life, how beautiful the colour of the 

 landscape is under almost any circumstances! In Summer or 

 Winter, by day, and also at night, there is the exhibition 

 of hues that holds him entranced. There is the soft radiance 

 of the dawn, and the glorious gorgeousness of the sunset. There 

 is the luxuriance of verdure and bloom at one season, and the 

 delicacy of the tints that fall upon the snow at another. All 

 this beauty he who has the artist soul experiences. Without 

 such environments the study of birds would be a very dull 

 affair. Museums are, to an extent, welcome, but to get back 

 again to the country-side ; to study and meet our feathered pets 

 in their natural haunts; to listen to their anthems of praise poured 

 forth from the scented hedgerows and the woodland glens, is 

 the Utopia of our desires. 



Here we may make original observations, and others, beside 

 ourselves, may probably profit by them. That is why we do 

 it, or, at any rate, should do. There is a satisfaction in this 

 knowledge which only those who worship at the shrine of 

 Country Life appreciate to the full extent. Ornithology is, to 

 many lovers of country life, "the Queen of Sciences," and it fully 

 deserves the honour. Birds, generally speaking, are our friends, 

 and not our enemies. Without their aid, vegetation would be 

 laid bare and desolate ; minus their voices the wayside would 

 be drear and dull; without their rainbow plumes and their 

 sombre garbs a cheerful intermingling the sunshine would 

 lose much of its lustre; without their welcome cups in the 

 hedgerows, their presence on the fallow lands and marshes, 



