xii Preface. 



collection of British birds which my old friend Mr. Wadham Locke 

 possessed when he lived at Ashton Gifford, near Warminster ; 

 and I have also examined and profited by the fine collections of 

 Mr. Rawlence, of Wilton ; of Mr. Elgar Sloper, at Devizes ; and of 

 Mr. Gwatkin, of the Manor House, Potterne. Moreover, I possess 

 a very fair collection of my own, both of birds and eggs, which 

 I began in my Eton days more than fifty years ago ; so that I 

 have had an ample supply of specimens at hand, without stray- 

 ing beyond the borders of our county ; and if I fail in setting 

 forth the birds of Wilts in this volume, it is certainly from no 

 lack of willing and able correspondents, nor from the want of 

 sufficient collections from which to draw my material. 



With these words of preface I send forth my newly-fledged 

 Wiltshire bantling to try its wings in a flight through the 

 county, craving indulgence for its shortcomings ; but this I 

 know I shall meet with from ornithologists, for there is, I verily 

 believe, such a friendly feeling among birdmen, and such a free- 

 masonry among all lovers of the feathered race, that if they see 

 a poor victim mercilessly pecked at by cruel critics they will 

 fly to the rescue and drive off the attacking bird of prey ; nor 

 cease till they have delivered the timid quarry, before he is 

 overwhelmed by his fierce assailants. 



There is a satisfaction to me in preparing these pages for the 

 press in the old home of my boyhood and youth, the hedge- 

 rows of which were the scenes of my first bird-nesting expedi- 

 tions, and the woods and coppices of which echoed to the report 

 of my gun more than fifty years ago. 



OLD PARK, DEVIZES, 

 May, 1887. 



