Fox and Snow-finches.—p. 100.
A YEAR
WITH THE BIRDS
BY
W. WARDE FOWLER
AUTHOR OF “TALES OF THE BIRDS,” ETC.
“L’uccello ha maggior copia di vita esteriore e interiore, che non hannogli altri animali. Ora, se la vita è cosa più perfetta che il suo contrario,almeno nelle creature viventi: e se perciò la maggior copia di vita è maggioreperfezione; anche per questo modo séguita che la natura degli uccelli siapiù perfetta.”—Leopardi: Elogio degli uccelli.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY BRYAN HOOK
THIRD EDITION ENLARGED
London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND NEW YORK
1891
Richard Clay and Sons, Limited,
LONDON AND BUNGAY.
First two editions published elsewhere. Third edition, 1889; Reprinted, 1891.
PATRI MEO
QVI CVM AVCVPIS NOMINE
AVIVM AMOREM
FILIO
TRADIDIT
PREFACE.
This little book is nothing more than an attempt tohelp those who love birds, but know little aboutthem, to realize something of the enjoyment which Ihave gained, in work-time as well as in holiday, formany years past, from the habit of watching and listeningfor my favourites.
What I have to tell, such as it is, is told in closerelation to two or three localities: an English city, anEnglish village, and a well-known district of the Alps.This novelty (if it be one) is not likely, I think, to causethe ordinary reader any difficulty. Oxford is so familiarto numbers of English people apart from its permanentresidents, that I have ventured to write of it withoutstopping to describe its geography; and I have purposelyconfined myself to the city and its precincts, inorder to show how rich in bird-life an English town maybe. The Alps, too, are known to thousands, and thewalk I have described in Chapter III., if the readershould be unacquainted with it, may easily be followedby reference to the excellent maps of the Oberland inthe guide-books of Ball or Baedeker. The chaptersviiiabout the midland village, which lies in ordinary Englishcountry, will explain their own geography.
One word about the title and the arrangement of thechapters. We Oxford tutors always reckon our year asbeginning with the October term, and ending with theclose of the Long Vacation. My chapters are arrangedon this reckoning; to an Oxford residence from Octoberto June, broken only by short vacations, succeeds a briefholiday in the Alps; then comes a sojourn in the midlands;and of the leisurely studies which the latterpart of the Long Vacation allows, I have given anornithological specimen in the last chapter.
Some parts of the first, second, and fifth chaptershave appe