Part 1

Natural History Works

By R. Kearton, F.Z.S.

With Illustrations from Photographs taken direct from Nature by C. and R. Kearton.

British Birds’ Nests. New and Enlarged Edition, 21s. net.

The Adventures of Cock Robin and His Mate. 6s.

Wild Nature’s Ways. 6s.

White’s Natural History of Selborne. 6s.

Strange Adventures in Dicky-bird Land. Cloth, 3s. 6d.; cloth gilt, gilt edges, 5s.

Our Bird Friends. 5s.

With Nature and a Camera. 7s. 6d.

Wild Life at Home. 6s.

Our Rarer British Breeding Birds: Their Nests, Eggs, and Summer Haunts. 3s. 6d. net.

Pictures from Nature. Being 15 choice Rembrandt Photogravures. In Portfolio. 10s. 6d. net.

Birds’ Nests, Eggs, and Egg Collecting. 5s.

CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED;

London, Paris, New York and Melbourne.

NATURE’S CAROL SINGERS

NATURE’S CAROL SINGERS

RICHARD KEARTON, F.Z.S.

Author of “Wild Nature’s Ways,” “The Adventures of Cock Robin and His Mate,” etc. etc.

ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS DIRECT FROM NATURE BY

CHERRY AND RICHARD KEARTON

CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK AND MELBOURNE. MCMVI

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

PREFACE.

Their plumage dazzles not, but yet can sweeter strains be heard? Let other feathers vaunt the dyes of deepest rainbow flush, Give me old England’s nightingale, its robin and its thrush. COOK.

Despite the fact that we live in a small and thickly populated country, we are singularly rich in song birds, thanks to our numerous old furze-clad commons, game preserves, and a healthy sentiment in the great majority of rich and poor alike towards the wee, feathered carol-singers that make grove and hillside ring with their sweet, happy music.

This little book deals in a concise and popular manner with the appearance, haunts, habits, nests, eggs, songs, and call notes of the winged melodists that breed in various parts of the British Islands. I have endeavoured to describe them in such a way that the reader may be able to identify them for himself or herself in wood and field, and where two species bear a similarity of appearance or song, to emphasise the points wherein they differ.