Chapter I: Preface

In the autumn of 1899 I came to live at Icklingham in Suffolk, and remained there, with occasional intervals of absence, for the next three years. During the greater part of that period I kept a day-to-day journal of field observation and reflection, and the following pages represent, for the most part, a portion of this. They are the work of one who professes nothing except to have used his eyes and ears to the best of his ability, and to give only, both in regard to fact and theory, the result of this method--combined, of course, in the latter case, with such illustrations and fortifications as his reading may have allowed him to make use of, and without taking into account some passing reference or allusion. That my notes relate almost entirely to birds, is not because I am less interested in other animals, but because, with the exception of rabbits, there are, practically, no wild quadrupeds in England. I am quite aware that a list can be made out, but let any one sit for a morning or afternoon in a wood, field, marsh, swamp, or pond, and he will then understand what I mean. In fact, to be a field naturalist in England, is to be a field ornithologist, and more often than not--I speak from experience--a waster of one’s time altogether. Unless you are prepared to be always unnaturally interested in the commonest matters, and not ashamed to pass as a genius by a never-ending barren allusion to them, be assured that you will often feel immensely dissatisfied with the way in which you have spent your day. Many a weary wandering, many an hour’s waiting and waiting to see, and seeing nothing, will be yours if you aim at more than this--and to read a book is fatal. But there is the _per contra_, and what that is I know very well. Of a few such _per contras_--they were to me, and I can only hope that some may be so to the reader--these “Bird Life Glimpses” are made up.

EDMUND SELOUS.

CHELTENHAM, _May 1905_.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS

“AT THE QUIET EVENFALL” _To face page_ 8
_Wood-Pigeons coming in to Roost_

THE RULES OF PRECEDENCE ” ” 54
_Hooded Crows and Rooks Feeding_

A GRAND DESCENT ” ” 80
_Herons coming down on to Nest_

A STATUESQUE FIGURE ” ” 119
_Snipe, with Starlings Bathing, and Peewits_

INDIGNANT ” ” 131
_Starling in possession of Woodpecker’s
Nesting Hole_

A PRETTY PAIR ” ” 198
_Long-Tailed Tits Building_

CHAPTER HEADPIECES

PAGE
PHEASANT ROOSTING 1

YOUNG NIGHTJARS 21

ROOKS AT NEST 51

HERON FISHING 72

MALE WHEAT-EAR 106

A “MURMURATION” OF STARLINGS 129

PEEWITS AND NEST 163

COAL-TIT 194

GREEN WOODPECKER 224

MARTINS BUILDING NEST 239

MOORHEN AND NEST 261

DABCHICKS AND NEST 296

BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES