2 62 Slimmer Studies of Birds and Books chap. 



lers from the north and west, and that our own birds 

 made their start during my absence in September. 



Something may be done by keeping a daily list of 

 all birds seen during August and September ; in this 

 way not only will the last appearance of some resi- 

 dents be detected, but a few casual travellers may 

 fall into the net. Something too may be done by 

 following the migrants on their journey, making 

 up the list of all birds seen, as at home. Unfortu- 

 nately it is not possible to be at home and to travel 

 at the same time ; and ornithologists are usually 

 attracted in the autumn by the vast immigration of 

 birds into this country from the east and north, and 

 find much more interesting occupation on our eastern 

 coast than on the western or southern districts. This 

 year I stayed at home till 4th September, keeping a 

 list in conjunction with two nephews, boys who were 

 being initiated into the mysteries of ornithology as 

 an agreeable holiday task. Prom the 12th to the 

 26th of September I travelled with one of them in 

 the south of England, beginning in Cornwall and 

 finishing in Kent. In neither period were the results 

 at all striking, nor indeed did I expect that they 

 would be ; but, taken in conjunction with the observa- 

 tions of other years, they may be worth setting down 

 as an epilogue to these summer studies. 



During the whole of the three weeks in August 

 which we spent here at Kingham, we were continu- 



