Produced by Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR BY F. G. AFLALO [Decoration] LONDON: MARTIN SECKER NUMBER FIVE JOHN STREET ADELPHI _First Published 1914_ Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Common bird names remain as originally printed. Inconsistent hyphenation has been standardised. The oe ligature is represented by [oe]. CONTENTS PAGE January: The Pheasant 11 February: The Woodcock 21 March: The Woodpigeon 33 April: Birds in the High Hall Garden 45 May: The Cuckoo 55 June: Voices of the Night 67 July: Swifts, Swallows and Martins 79 August: The Seagull 91 September: Birds in the Corn 103 October: The Moping Owl 113 November: Waterfowl 125 December: The Robin Redbreast 137 NOTE These sketches of birds, each appropriate to one month of the twelve, originally appeared in _The Outlook_, to the Editor and Proprietors of which review I am indebted for permission to reprint them in book form. F. G. A. EASTER, 1914. JANUARY THE PHEASANT THE PHEASANT As birds are to be considered throughout these pages from any standpoint but that of sport, much that is of interest in connection with a bird essentially the sportsman's must necessarily be omitted. At the same time, although this gorgeous creature, the chief attraction of social gatherings throughout the winter months, appeals chiefly to the men who shoot and eat it, it is not uninteresting to the naturalist with opportunities for studying its habits under conditions more favourable than those encountered when in pursuit of it with a gun.