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BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES
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BIRD LIFE
GLIMPSES
BY EDMUND SELOUS
WITH 12 HEADINGS AND 6 FULL-PAGE
ILLUSTRATIONS BY G. E. LODGE
LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN, 156
CHARING CROSS ROAD. MCMV
[All rights reserved]iv
FLINT HOUSE, ICKLINGHAMv
PREFACE
In the autumn of 1899 I came to live at Icklinghamin Suffolk, and remained there, with occasional intervalsof absence, for the next three years. Duringthe greater part of that period I kept a day-to-dayjournal of field observation and reflection, and thefollowing pages represent, for the most part, a portionof this. They are the work of one who professesnothing except to have used his eyes and ears to thebest of his ability, and to give only, both in regardto fact and theory, the result of this method—combined,of course, in the latter case, with such illustrationsand fortifications as his reading may haveallowed him to make use of, and without takinginto account some passing reference or allusion.That my notes relate almost entirely to birds, isnot because I am less interested in other animals,but because, with the exception of rabbits, there are,practically, no wild quadrupeds in England. I amquite aware that a list can be made out, but let anyone sit for a morning or afternoon in a wood, field,vimarsh, swamp, or pond, and he will then understandwhat I mean. In fact, to be a field naturalist inEngland, is to be a field ornithologist, and moreoften than not—I speak from experience—a wasterof one’s time altogether. Unless you are preparedto be always unnaturally interested in the commonestmatters, and not ashamed to pass as a genius by anever-ending barren allusion to them, be assuredthat you will often feel immensely dissatisfied withthe way in which you have spent your day. Manya weary wandering, many an hour’s waiting andwaiting to see, and seeing nothing, will be yours ifyou aim at more than this—and to read a book isfatal. But there is the per contra, and what that isI know very well. Of a few such per contras—theywere to me, and I can only hope that