PREFACE. vii 



be found to disagree with the descriptions given hy others, as of course they must 

 in little particulars, it must be observed, that the colours of some Birds vary 

 according to age, some species not arriving at the perfect state of their feathering 

 till three or four years old. I have endeavoured, however, to make choice of 

 the most perfect subjects, and as I found them in their wild state, not cramped 

 or mutilated by being confined in cages. 



In the same genus or family of Birds there is a general similarity or agree- 

 ment prevails amongst the species, in the figure and situation of the nests, as well 

 as in the materials of which they are composed, and the eggs which they contain. 



The various species of larks compose their nests of dried' grass and hair, 

 placing them on the ground. Linnets chuse out some low bush, and compose their 

 nests oj moss, hair, and down. Finches nestle in some prickly shrub or tree, and 

 fabricate their nests with small sticks, moss, wool, roots, hair, and feathers. 

 Wrens and most of the summer warblers hide their nests under brakes or bushes 

 near the ground, in walls or hollow trees, and make use of fern, moss, grass, hair, 

 and feathers. But be the matter of which the nests are composed, or the place 

 where they are found, what they may, there is in every species something peculiar 

 to itself, in the size, form, and habit of the nest and eggs together, by which any 

 one that has well observed them, is enabled to say with certainty, on sight of the 

 nest and eggs, to what Bird they belong. 



The Eggs, in some species, are subject to variety in respect of colour ; the tit- 

 lark, for instance, is a perfect Proteus in this particular, not only in separate nests, 

 but in the same individual. I have seen nests of this bird with five or six eggs, 

 and not two amongst them precisely alike, either in the markings, or the hue of 

 colour. The Eggs of the lesser field-lark are also variable in colour. 



The greater and lesser crested larks, though said to be natives of Yorkshire, 

 are rarities- 1 have not yet been able to discover i though I have for many years 

 made diligent search after them. 



' That the male birds in the skylark, the lesser field-lark, and the woodlark, have 

 a power of raising the feathers on the crown, in form of a crest, and that they do 

 erect them in breeding -time, I very well know ; bid as to what are called crested 

 larks, if specifically distinct from these, are birds with which I am unacquainted ; 

 and if any one willf-avour me by sending fair specimens of them, alive or dead, the 

 obligation shall be gratefully acknowledged by me. 



