IO 



PREFACE 



large amount of amateur interest in natural history is 

 afloat, as may be gleaned from casual notes in every 

 newspaper. The early arrival of the cuckoo is noted 

 by some more eagerly than the latest news from the 

 East. Smith, who has found a robins' nest, with eggs, 

 in his summer arbour, as he goes up by the early train 

 triumphs openly over Jones, who can only report a 

 blackbird building in his garden-hedge. Nor is our 

 resentment over-deep when a smoky chimney is 

 accounted for by the jackdaw's playful habit of filling 

 it with sticks, or when the flooding of an attic is 

 traced to a sparrow's penchant for nesting in the 

 receiver of the rain-water pipe. For our familiar 

 birds we have the feeling which springs from the 

 inherited association of many generations. To take 

 an instance — for how many centuries has \he beauty 

 of the hedge-sparrow's eggs appealed to the careless 

 heart of boyhood ? Happily in Britain none of our 

 favourites are in the least danger of extinction ; a 

 state of equilibrium has been reached or nearly so, 

 whereas in newly-settled countries many species 

 disappear or retreat before the spread of cultivation. 

 There is no corner of England in which one need be 

 wholly out of touch with the birds, for, if food and 

 shelter are to be found, they have not the least objection 

 to the close neighbourhood of bricks and mortar. We 

 do not refer to such notable bird sanctuaries as college 

 lawns and " backs," numerous and varied as are the 

 feathered tenants of these haunts of ancient peace. 

 But close to the din and tumult of cities, the hum and 

 clang of machinery, Nature still has her outposts and 

 birds find a home. With what tenacity they cling to 

 their time-honoured haunts the case of the Gray's Inn 

 rooks serves to show. From the dusty and smoke- 

 grimed trees of the city square, the Chaffinch rattles out 



