FOREWORD 



BY 



Gene Stratton-Porter, 



Author of " A Girl of the Iyimberlost," " Birds 

 of the Bible," etc., etc. 



THERE never can be too many good books on 

 the subject of ' ' Wild Birds and their 

 Haunts," because the scientist of to-day has 

 finally arrived at the realization that our food and com- 

 fort depend upon the birds. On account of the likeness 

 of the processes of human life to those of bird life in 

 mating, home building, and the rearing and feeding of 

 young, all Nature birds elicit our tenderest sympathy. 

 We appreciate their grace in flight, their beauty of 

 colouring, their exquisite and appealing song. We are 

 touched by their trust in us, that fellowship that brings 

 humming birds and warblers to the roses screening our 

 windows, wrens to the knot holes in our weather boarding, 

 robins to our lintels, swallows to our chimneys, and 

 martins to our eaves. There is no more pathetic 

 spectacle on the landscape than a birdless home ; as a rule 

 it is also a flowerless and loveless home. 



That the birds enrich us with their beauty and cheer 

 us with their song is the smallest part of their service to 

 us. Without their help in cleaning the air of mosquitoes 

 and tiny insects we should be much more uncomfortable 

 than we are now. Without their work in eliminating 

 slug and aphis; borer and beetle from our gardens and 

 orchards, half our flower and fruit crops would be lost. 

 This applies not alone to the delicate and lovely song 

 birds. Quail and pheasant are busy in the fields, plover 

 and rail around the lake shores, hawk and owl at work 

 in the forest. Our forefathers felt justified in shooting 

 gallinae for food, and falcons, hawks, and owls on sight, 

 in the belief that the loss of an occasional domestic fowl 



