PREFACE. 



The present volume must be regarded more as a popular 

 introduction to the bird -life of our northern shires than 

 in any way as an exhaustive faunal treatise, although at 

 the same time we believe almost every indigenous species 

 has been included. For twenty years we lived surrounded 

 by these northern birds, so that we may fairly claim to 

 have served our ornithological apprenticeship amongst 

 them. With the birds of South Yorkshire and North 

 Derbyshire we are specially familiar; whilst repeated visits 

 not only to the Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and Northumbrian 

 littoral, but farther afield into Lancashire, and various parts 

 of the Lowlands and the Highlands of Scotland, have 

 enabled us to acquire much personal information relating 

 to the avifauna of many a northern shire. 



The difference between the avifaunae of the northern and 

 southern shires is strongly marked in many respects. Their 

 study makes a record of avine comparisons of the most 

 intense interest. The important effects produced by lati- 

 tude and climate upon the bird-life of these widely sepa- 

 rated areas make material for fascinating investigation, and 

 have been fully dwelt upon as opportunities were presented. 

 This variation in avine phenomena is not only far too 

 often entirely ignored, but is apt to lead the student of 



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