‎'‎Birds have been to me the solace‎,‎ the recreation‎,‎ the passion of a lifetime‎.‎‎'‎ So wrote Reginald Bosworth Smith ‎(‎1839‎-1908‎)‎‎,‎ former Classics master at Harrow School‎.‎ As a young man‎,‎ he published his first book on birds while teaching at Oxford‎,‎ and he continued to combine his lifelong love of birds with classical and literary teaching and research‎.‎ He retired to a country house in Dorset and in 1905 published this book‎,‎ based on a series of articles written in his retirement‎.‎ Recording his own observations‎,‎ some of many years before‎,‎ and peppered with scholarly references to birds in literature‎,‎ the essays cover individual birds such as the owl‎,‎ the raven and the magpie‎,‎ as well as bird‎-watching in Dorset and beyond‎.‎ Imparting a love and respect for wildlife that remains inspiring‎,‎ this book will be of great interest to the bird‎-lover and scholar of today‎.‎