PEEFACE. 



npHIS little book is nothing more than an attempt to help 

 those who love birds, but know little about them, to realise 

 something of the enjoyment which I have gained, in work- 

 time as well as in holiday, for many years past, from the habit 

 of watching and listening for my favourites. 



What I have to tell, such as it is, is told in close relation to 

 two or three localities ; an English city, an English village, and 

 a well-known district of the Alps.' This novelty (if it be one) 

 is not likely, I think, to cause the ordinary reader any difficulty. 

 Oxford is so familiar to numbers of English people apart from 

 its permanent residents, that I have ventured to write of it 

 without stopping to describe its geography: and I have 

 purposely confined myself to the city and its precincts, in 

 order to show how rich in bird-life an English town may be. 

 The Alps, too, are known to thousands, and the walk I have 

 described in Chapter III, if the reader should be unacquainted 

 with it, may easily be followed by reference to the excellent 

 maps of the Oberland in the guide-books of Ball or Baedeker. 

 The chapters about the midland village, which lies in ordinary 

 English country, will explain their own geography. 



a 3 



