PREFACE. Vll 



have obtained at second-liand. And, indeed, if I thought I 

 were obtruding myself on the attention of ornithologists, 

 I should feel as audacious as the Robin which is at this 

 moment, in my neighbour's outhouse, sitting on eggs for 

 which, with characteristic self-confidence, she has chosen a 

 singular resting-place in an old cage, once the prison-house 

 of an ill-starred Goldfinch. 



There are few days, from March to July, when even the 

 shortest stroll may not reveal something of interest to the care- 

 ful watcher. It was pleasant, this brilliant spring morning, to 

 find that a Redstart, perhaps the same individual noticed on 

 page 76, had not forgotten my garden during his winter sojourn 

 in the south ; and that a pair of Pied Flycatchers, the first of 

 their species which I have known to visit us here, were trying 

 to make up their minds to build their nest in an old grey wall, 

 almost within a stone's throw of our village church. 



KiNGHAM, OXON. 



April 24, 1886. 



