X. PREFACE. 



the author's residence has been chiefly in and around the 

 metropolis during the last ten years, many of which have 

 been passed at Lewisham, with innumerable rambles to 

 Sydenham, Forest Hill, &c. &c, yet, that the chief of his 

 knowledge of the Natural History of Birds has been 

 obtained by a long residence in Somersetshire, at Hunts- 

 pill, of which place he is a native ; and where, 1o his 

 shame be it spoken, in his earlier days, he was the most 

 inveterate bird's-nester in the county. Not an egg or nest 

 of any kind in hedge, bank, bush, the loftiest tree* or wall, 

 could escape him. He had, while yet a boy, one year, an 

 exhibition of nearly two hundred eggs, obtained from the 

 various tribes, the Hawk, the Cuckoo, and a numerous et 

 ctetera. He is now, however, thoroughly convinced of the 

 folly, not to say wickedness, of such predatory plunder ; 

 the birds which do us harm are, comparatively, so few, 

 that, the House-sparrow perhaps excepted, (and he fears 

 that he must except the house- sparrow of the country,) 

 benevolence would bid us leave them all to their enjoy- 

 ments ; — a moderate degree of care being sufficient to 

 prevent any of their serious depredations. It is hoped that 

 his inconsiderate example will be no inducement to any 

 one to follow the idle and heartless pursuit of bird's-nesting. 

 No one can more truly regret than the author now does the 

 pains to which his heedless and silly curiosity, or something 

 worse, subjected them. 



Should, therefore, any fact relative to the birds of this 

 country be stated in the following pages, which may not 

 seem in accordance with what is stated in books, or even 

 with the experience of the accurate observer of nature — 

 the Natural Historian, it is hoped that it will not be forgotten, 

 that many facts may be observed in one place which might 

 not occur in another. Even the nidification of birds, 



