MISADVENTURES OF BIRD-WATCHING 53 



bones, and describe the colours of their plumage 

 at different seasons of the year. He may compare 

 and classify and theorise. But to learn much 

 about their interesting ways of life, their " daily 

 walk and conversation," is quite another matter, 

 belonging to many an hour spent in the open air 

 under spring and summer skies, and having 

 nothing to do with the study and the midnight 

 oil. The reader can have but a faint idea of the 

 charm inseparable from systematic observation 

 of the habits of birds unless he himself has 

 special opportunities and inclinations for such a 

 pursuit. 



Mention has already been made of frequent 

 disappointments. I shall never forget an 

 incident connected with my endeavours to 

 learn as much as possible about a warbler which 

 frequented a copse on the steep river-bank 

 below the village. One evening I discovered 

 the bird quite unexpectedly. Evidently she 

 was not aware of my presence, for she flew to 

 a bramble twig overhanging a dense tangle of 

 grass, in a beautiful wild garden, where blue 

 hyacinths and pink campions grew luxuriantly 

 under the shadows of tall ox-eye daisies, and 

 boughs laden with the snowy bloom of the 

 " may." Thence, without hesitation, she 

 descended into the middle of the undergrowth, 

 evidently with the intention of visiting her nest. 



