26 BIRDS AND MAN 



Queensland, or Burma, or Canada, or Patagonia, 

 but with an intense interest ; for these were the 

 birds which my forbears had known and Ustened 

 to all their lives long ; and my imagination was fired 

 by all that had been said of their charm, not indeed 

 by frigid ornithologists, but by a long succession of 

 great poets, from Chaucer down to those of our own 

 time. Hearing them thus emotionally their notes 

 became permanently impressed on my mind, and I 

 found myself the happy possessor of a large nui^nber 

 of sound-images representing the bird language of 

 two widely separated regions. 



To return to the main point — the durability of 

 the impressions both of sight and sound. 



In order to get a more satisfactory idea of the 

 number and comparative strength or vividness of 

 the images of twenty- six years ago remaining to me 

 after so long a time than I could by merely thinking 

 about the subject, I drew up a list of the species 

 of birds observed by me in the two adjoining dis- 

 tricts of La Plata and Patagonia. Against the 

 name of each species the surviving sight- and sound- 

 impressions were set down ; but on going over this 

 first list and analysis, fresh details came to mind, and 

 some images which had become dimmed all at once 

 grew bright again, and to bring these in, the work 



