156 NATURE'S STORY OF THE YEAR 



observe some of the most commonplace, yet highly 

 interesting, facts in the life-habits of birds. Did 

 one of them trouble himself to ascertain the mean- 

 ing of the noisy combats of the sparrows that 

 chirped around his house ? Did one recognise the 

 wonderful mimicry of the wild thrush ? There is 

 no sign of it in their books. I believe it was left 

 to myself to indicate that habit of the sparrow, and 

 to direct attention to that method of the thrush. 

 In his book " Summer Studies of Birds," Mr. Warde 

 Fowler jeered ; but he has since made amends in 

 Nature, and admitted that I had led him to dis- 

 cover that the thrush and robin imitated to an 

 extent that he had not even suspected. 



The swift, among other victims, received atten- 

 tion from the ornithologist. Its body is minutely 

 described in the books, and its effigy is in all col- 

 lections : its eggs are clutched by the felon hand 

 of every collector ; yet, one of its most interesting 

 habits, nay, one of the most extraordinary in the 

 whole region of ornithology, has been overlooked, 

 though it could apparently have been witnessed 

 in every habitat of the bird within our shores. 

 Curiously enough, this habit was first observed at 



