THE STUDY OF NATURE. 17 



He has ^vronged himself by saying that, in his noble work, " he 

 has only sought a pretext for a discourse on man." On the contrary, 

 numerous pages demonstrate that, apart from all analogy, he has loved 

 and studied the Bird for its own sake. And it is for this reason 

 that he has surrounded it with so many legends, with such vivid and 

 profound personifications. Each bird which Toussenel treats of is 

 now, and will for ever remain, a person. 







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v>^ 



Nevertheless, the book now before the reader starts from a point of 

 view which differs in all things from that of our illustrious master. 



A point of view by no means contrary, yet symmetrically 

 opposed, to his. 



For I, as much as possible, seeking only the bird in the bird, 

 avoid the human analogy. With the exception of two chapters, I 

 have written as if only the bird existed, as if man had never been. 



Man ! we have already met with him sufficiently often in other 

 places. Here, on the contrary, we have sought an alibi from the human 

 world, from the profound solitude and desolation of ancient days. 



Man could not have lived without the bird, which alone could 

 save him from the insect and the reptile ; but the bird had lived 

 without man. 



Man or no man, the eagle had reigned on his Alpine throne. 

 The swallow would not the less have performed her yearly migration. 

 The frigate bird,* unseen by human eyes, had stiU hovered over the 

 * The frigate bird, or man-of-war bird {Trachi/j^etes aquila). — Translator. 



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