INTRODUCTION. I? 



moth and its larva, the ichneumon parasitises the particular 

 insect upon which it feeds without consulting our wishes, and 

 the bird devours alike the ichneumon or its victim. Spiders 

 are a favourite food of many birds, and spiders catch flies, but 

 the spider does not bother what its prey feeds upon. The 

 carnivorous bird feeds alike upon Finch or flycatcher ; it merely 

 wishes to fulfil its own destiny, to keep itself alive. 



Nature's methods are complicated, and when we strive to 

 improve upon them we usually find that we are at fault. It is 

 not for us to judge from our restricted outlook what bird should 

 or should not be here, but by our protective methods to 

 endeavour to retain, in the numbers in which Nature has 

 ordained, each species in its proper place. Our civilisation 

 with its unnatural restrictions and cultivations, has disturbed 

 the face of the earth ; we should strive to rectify our own 

 mistakes rather than make matters worse by upsetting specific 

 proportions further. Our artificial aid or check may be the 

 last straw which causes disaster. Once a creature becomes too 

 scarce or too abundant natural balances are dislocated, a link 

 in the chain is weakened and the whole becomes a danger. 



RECORD KEEPING. 



For the study of birds few things are of greater importance 

 than keeping notes ; every ornithologist should keep a note- 

 book and enter even trivial observations. He cannot begin too 

 young. Much valuable information has been lost through 

 neglect ; again and again we come across rare birds about 

 which data are unobtainable. Collectors of a generation ago 

 seldom preserved records ; they passed away, their knowledge 

 with them. 



Most of us, as we grow older, remember more or less dis- 

 tinctly rare birds we saw when we were young, but too juvenile 



Series I, C 



