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CHAPTER I.
Oxford: Autumn and Winter.

How I came to notice birds—Oxford favourable to bird-life—Late lingerers in October—Migration and pugnacity of Robins—The Bullfinch and the buds—Parsons’ Pleasure and the Cherwell—Kingfishers rare in the summer term—Colouring of the Kingfisher—The Gray Wagtail at the weir; its beauty—The Lesser Redpoll—An eccentric Jack-snipe—Birds of the Park and Magdalen Walk—Lesser Spotted Woodpecker—Christchurch meadow and the Botanic Garden; Titmice, Blackbirds, Redwings—Sea-birds in Port Meadow 1

CHAPTER II.
Oxford: Spring and Summer.

Departure of winter birds—Warblers; explanation of the term—Different kinds of warblers—Tree-warblers—Chiff-chaff’s arrival—Willow-warbler’s song and nest—Blackcap and Garden-warbler; their songs compared—The two Whitethroats at Parsons’ Pleasure; how to distinguish them—River-warblers; comparative rarity of Reed-warbler; his song compared with Sedge-warbler’s—The Redstart and pollard willows—Summer habits of Oxford Sparrows—Flycatcher and other birds in the Parks 35

CHAPTER III.
The Alps in June.

The Alpine pastures in June—Ornithologists and the Alps—Johann Anderegg, a peasant naturalist—Number of species in Switzerland; abundance of food—Migration, complete and partial—The Alps how far a barrier to migrating birds—The three ornithological regions of Switzerland; migrations within them—Stanz-stadt and its reed-bed—Valley of the Aa—White Wagtail and Black Redstart—The Swallow family—The Alps proper and their birds; Water-pipit, etc.—Citril Finch at the Engstlen Alp—Snow-finches—Rock-creeper; its habits—Birds of the pine-forests; Woodpeckers, Tit-mice—Crested Tit in the Gentelthal—Bonelli’s Warbler at Meiringen 68

CHAPTER IV.
A Midland Village. Garden and Meadow.

Description of the vale of the Evenlode—Situation of the village; variety of scenery—Movements of the birds in the district—A bird-haunted garden—Redstart; its increase of late years—A Black Redstart on an ugly wall—Cuckoo and Robin’s nest—Ingenious Nuthatches—Spotted Flycatcher; his peculiarities—Allotments and Rooks—Green Sandpiper in the brook; occurrence in midwinter—Habits of young birds—Rooks hostile to intruders—Long-tailed Tits on the ice 111

CHAPTER V.
A Midland Village: Railway and Woodland.

Railways favourable to birds—Whinchat and Stonechat—Peculiarities of the Buntings—Nests by the railway—Ring-ousel—Song of the Tree-pipit—Pipits, Larks, Wagtails—Predatory birds of the woods—Interview with a Grasshopper Warbler; its “reel”—Beauty of the Nightingale; its habits and song—Song-birds of the woods—Woodpeckers—Birds of the hills—Local migrations during the year 144

CHAPTER VI.
The Alps in September.

Geography of Switzerland—Bird-catching on the passes—Birds on the BrÜnig Pass—The Hasli-Thal—Crossbills—The Gadmen-Thal and Stein-alp—Migration on the Susten-pass—Hospenthal—Departure of Swallows—Migration of insects—Return to Meiringen—The Swiss peasant 177

CHAPTER VII.
The Birds of Virgil.

Virgil’s haunts in Italy, in boyhood and manhood—Virgil true to nature—Pigeons in his poems—Crane and Stork; their migrations—Corvus and cornix—Swans—The ‘alcyon,’ in Latin and Greek ornithology—Voice of the Kingfisher—The ‘acalanthis’; warblers in Italy and Greece—Virgil’s sea-birds and swallows—Nightingale in Homer and Virgil—Simile of ghosts and birds in Sixth Aeneid—Autumn migrations from the north 210

NOTES 255

INDEX 263