260 Country Rambles. 



season, is manifestly to introduce confusion. At least 

 fifty out of Mr. Morris's three hundred and fifty-eight 

 have not occurred more than once or twice in any part of 

 Great Britain; and another hundred are particularised as 

 " extremely rare." To say that there are about two hundred 

 British species is thus nearer the truth as regards the 

 established denizens of our island the birds we are 

 familiar with, or with which we may become so by steady 

 watching; and of these, proper to our own neighbour- 

 hood, there would seem to occur within a few miles of 

 Manchester about ninety. The number of permanent 

 residents mentioned in the " Walks " is fifty-nine, and of 

 regular summer and winter visitors between twenty-five 

 and thirty ; if there is any difference at the present 

 moment, the changes of twenty-four years will certainly 

 not indicate increase. Why we have no more than about 

 one-half of the proper ornithology of the country is that 

 Lancashire is too far to the north, and its climate too 

 damp and chilly, for many of the summer immigrants 

 from beyond the channel, though some of these have 

 no objection to visit the adjacent county of York; while 

 in respect of the winter visitors from the colder parts 

 of the Continent and the Baltic regions, we are rather too 

 far to the west. If few in comparison with the possessions 

 of more favoured districts, the ninety or a hundred are 

 still enough to be proud of and to rejoice in. It is with 

 birds as with wild-flowers : we do not want lengthy cata- 

 logues, but that which shall gladden the heart. A single 

 life-history, followed up in every little particular, supplies, 



