INTRODUCTORY. 



In offering to bird-lovers these studies from 

 life, I wish to say that with the exception of 

 an incident or two — properly credited — every- 

 thing herein recorded came under my own ob- 

 servation, and is literally and entirely true so 

 far as the fact is concerned ; I may have some- 

 times misunderstood the motives of the little 

 actors in the drama, but the account of their 

 actions may be implicitly relied upon. 



Also I should like to explain how a lover of 

 free birds can endure to keep them in confine- 

 ment. Each inhabitant of a cage in my house 

 has been liberated from the positive discomforts 

 of a bird-store, and besides the unwearied effort 

 to make their lives happy and as free as pos- 

 sible in a room, the moment one shows a desire 



