INTRODUCTION. 
9 
of years, until the writer can lay claim at all events to having made many observations 
on if he has not succeeded in solving any of the many problems connected with their 
distribution, partial migration, and general disappearance at stated seasons. He 
should be able to propound conclusions based on long attention to the objects of 
his study, if he cannot altogether fathom the secrets of bird life and movement. 
Ornithological nomenclature and classification offer special attractions to a certain 
type of chamber naturalists, one of whom Mr. Marks happily painted a few years 
ago, arranging his stuffed specimens. And, of course, ornithology and its students 
cannot afford to neglect the aids which are thus offered them. By such studies 
the field of comparison is much enlarged, and the species of birds common to 
different countries mutually throw light upon each other. But undoubtedly the most 
pleasant and gainful pursuit of ornithology is derived from open-air observation. 
Not that an out-door student can afford to dispense with the lucubrations of his 
more scientific brethren, but he can with very little aid from them hope materially 
to enlarge the boundaries of the subject, to fill up blanks in the life history of the 
different species which come before his ken—to make discoveries, in short, in an 
empirical manner which are denied to the mere arranger of birds in new groups 
and systems. His whole procedure, too, is carried on in the presence of nature; 
healthful exercise is his, and beauty is presented to his gaze in a thousand different 
forms of cloud and plant, beast, bird, and insect, till from the universal chorus of 
praise and harmony arising from the adaptation of all life to the circumstances in 
which it is placed, the observer falls into the poet’s train of thought, discerning— 
“Authentic tidings of invisible things, 
Of ebb and flow, and ever-during power, 
And central peace subsisting at the heart 
Of endless agitation. Here you stand, 
Adore and worship, when you know it not; 
Pious beyond the intention of your thought, 
Devout above the meaning of your will.” 
The Excursion. 
The writer trusts that, from these accounts of bird life and the drawings of 
Giacomelli, some who might otherwise have neglected so pleasant a pursuit as 
ornithology may be led to the study of our familiar birds. The group of thirteen 
here described are selected as a fair sample of the birds to be found more or less 
during summer near most country houses. Some are with us all the year, others 
only during the warm weather. Some (such as the reed warbler and nightingale) 
are local. Several of them can be seen anywhere; others must be sought in their 
characteristic localities—as for instance the tits, the woodpeckers, and the kingfisher. 
B 
