io THE BIRDS OF OUR RAMBLES. 



to the part of the fields I was crossing. By 

 keeping good time with the birds, I found out that 

 they kept good time with me, and were regular, 

 too marvellously regular in their habits ; and to 

 this patient, dogged perseverance in my observa- 

 tions I attribute whatever knowledge I may 

 possess of the ways and doings of my feathered 

 friends. " Rome was not built in a day." A 

 practical knowledge of Ornithology is not gained 

 in a year, it is the work of a lifetime ; and I only 

 fear that the busiest of us will leave far more 

 undone at the close of even a long life than we 

 have ever accomplished by the most constant care 

 and unwearying observation. And this, in spite 

 of the supremely ignorant remark of a still more 

 supremely ignorant reviewer, that "it is now scarce 

 possible to discover anything new about the four 

 hundred sorts (sic] of British birds." Could 

 crass, impudent imposition on public credulity go 

 further ? So far the reviewer in the Scots 

 Observer alias the National Observer a paper 

 that so far forgot its dignity as to apply for 

 a review copy of one of my books (when they 

 found that none had been sent), yet only to pelt 

 it with literary garbage, to which the writer was 

 either ashamed or afraid to append his signature. 

 With these few introductory remarks, we will 

 now proceed to study in detail the " Birds of our 

 Rambles." 



