276 WITHIN AN HOUR OF LONDON TOWN. 



about them. Conjecture as to facts is worse than 

 useless, it is mischievous. Whatever I have stated 

 in these pages about the birds is from personal 

 observation. It is not much, certainly, but what 

 little there is, is all from the life. 



The admirable groups of British birds with their 

 natural surroundings, left by the late eminent natu- 

 ralist, E. T. Booth, to the corporation of Brighton, 

 are all that could be desired or wished for. In 

 the Natural History Museum at South Kensington 

 we have, too, the series of groups composed of 

 British birds, set up in the same manner as those 

 contained in the Booth collection at Brighton. To 

 all those who may be interested in birds, without 

 having the time or opportunity of searching for 

 them in their own habitats, either of the places we 

 have mentioned would give all they could wish to 

 see, the life of the creatures alone excepted. The 

 rising generation those, we mean, who admire 

 bird -life can form no opinion of the difficulties 

 field naturalists had to struggle with under forty-five 

 years ago, whereas now princely and lifelike collec- 

 tions are open for study and instruction free. 



Those who seek for wild creatures in their haunts, 



