PREFACE 



'T is usually supposed to be necessary to go 

 far into the country to find wild birds and 

 animals in sufficient numbers to be pleasantly 

 studied. Such was certainly my own impres- 

 sion till circumstances led me, for the convenience 

 of access to London, to reside for awhile about 

 twelve miles from town. There my preconceived 

 views on the subject were quite overthrown by the 

 presence of as much bird-life as I had been accus- 

 tomed to in distant fields and woods. 



First, as the spring began, came crowds of chiff- 

 chaffs and willow wrens filling the furze with 

 ceaseless flutterings. Presently a nightingale sang 

 in a hawthorn bush only just on the other side of 

 the road. One morning, on looking out of window, 

 there was a hen pheasant in the furze almost under- 

 neath. Rabbits often came out into the spaces of 

 sward between the bushes. 



The furze itself became a broad surface of gold, 

 beautiful to look down upon, with islands of ten- 

 derest birch green interspersed, and willows in which 

 the sedge-reedling chattered. They used to say in 

 the country that cuckoos were getting scarce, but 



