o f natural-history societies to the utmost, and doing so enlighten the minds o f those who have hitherto been
much in ignorance ? With this spread o f knowledge, mythical traditions such as th at o f the hibernation in
caves or under water o f such a bird as our common Swallow (traditions not confined, as might be presumed,
to a remote country village, but which from time to time have found utterance from the lips o f educated people)
will happily cease to ex is t; while the timid rustic, gradually freeing himself from the countless superstitions
connected with many o f our birds, will no longer pause with bated breath when started a t night by the not
very cheerful cry o f the Screech-Owl. To be in the country and not to care to recognize or be able to
discriminate between the musical notes of the Thrush, the plaintive song o f the Blackbird, the carol o f the
Lark, o r the exquisite lay o f the Nightingale, is to me surprising; yet that such people exist is but too well
known. Shakespeare and our earlier poets duly appreciated, however, the varying melodies o f our feathered
songsters, and have never been slow to accord to each its well-earned tribute o f praise :—
“ It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree;
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.’'-—
Borneo and Juliet, act iii. scene 5.
Again :—
“ The busy larke, messager of daye,
Salneth in hire song the morwe gray:
And fyry Phebus ryseth up so bright.,
That al the orient laugheth of the light.”—
Chaucer, Knightes Tale.
O r :—
“ Hark how the cheerefull birds do chaunt theyr laies,
And carroll of loves praise.
The merry larke hir mattins sings aloft,
The thrush replyes, the mavis descant playes,
The ouzell shrills, the ruddock warbles soft;
So goodly all agree with sweet consent
To this dayes merriment.”—
S pencer, Epithalamion, 1596.
The study o f natural history reveals to us a wide field, pregnant with interest and pleasure. The geologist,
who, from the various aspects of nature, attempts to form a conception o f how this planet has been formed,
and the naturalist, whose senses are keenly alive to the beauty and importance o f the manifold living objects
which meet his gaze on every side, are pursuing a course calculated to lead to the highest and happiest
results. Even the humble cottager who decorates his windows with flowers, and the artisan who keeps and
encourages his little birds to sing and to solace him, are imbued with tastes o f a superior order, which, if
properly cultivated, cannot fail to induce a greater intellectual development, and consequently an increase in
happiness.
Granted that the antiquary in poring over some dusty relic o f a by-gone age experiences a thrill of
pleasure denied to others, o r that the wealthy man filling his rooms with the finest efforts o f the artist’s
pencil, and his cabinets with articles of rare and costly workmanship, thereby experiences a very high degree
o f gratification, or even that the man of pleasure, fulfilling the daily routine demanded by fashion, finds in it
some irresistible attraction—yet what are these enjoyments compared with those daily and hourly offered to
the student o f n a tu re ! Does he not see in the growth o f a blade of grass, or in the mechanism which
enables the tiny gnat to effect the countless vibrations o f its gauzy wings, or in the majestic ease o f the
soaring eagle, evidences o f a power and skill immeasurably superior to those ever originated by man ?
Can he walk in the fields without seeing and hearing around him sights and sounds which, while tending to
make him more and more thoughtful, deeply impress him with the sense o f the wisdom, the power, and the
beneficence o f his Creator ? That man who has passed his allotted time in ignorance of the teeming worlds
o f life around him, has had denied to him pleasures and delights the experience o f which must have gone
far to elevate the noblest o f God’s created beings. “ T he study o f ornithology has always been a favourite
one with me,” says the late Mr. Wheelwright, “ and is one o f the few innocent pleasures of youth which
follow a man into maturer years, and upon which he can look back in the decline of life with feelings of
pure and unalloyed delight. Man’s constant companions in every outdoor occupation, cheering him with
their presence and their songs, and often affording him a principal means of subsistence, it is little wonder
that the study o f the habits and instincts o f birds should be a favourite one with most persons ; and to him
whose time is quietly an^ happily spent in the forests and fields it adds one o f the truest zests to rural life.”
Notwithstanding the limitation of area implied in a work entitled ‘ T he Birds o f G reat Britain,’ the most
elementary student o f natural history must acknowledge that in numbers and in interest, if not in beauty of
marking, our avifauna will bear a favourable comparison with that of other countries o f similar extent. The
one most closely approximating to it would appear to be that of Japan—a fact sufficiently surprising when
we remember the vast continent embracing many degrees o f longitude stretching between the two. But the
resemblance may possibly be explained by the similarity existing in their physical conditions and in the
general character o f their natural productions. Both countries are blessed with a temperate climate
especially suited to similar forms o f bird-life, some species identically the same occurring in each ; but, in
addition, Great Britain offers in its numerous islets, its rocky promontories and extensive marsbes, its
natural forests and heathy expanses, certain advantages o f locality not perhaps enjoyed by Japan to the same
extent, and which are singularly well adapted to forms o f the most opposite kinds.
One feature o f especial interest must always strike the naturalist in studying the birds o f the temperate
zone, viz. the alternation o f its feathered immigrants, which lends such a charm to the scenery, a charm
which is greatly enhanced when we reflect that these migratory movements are governed by certain infallible