84 Nuics on Jungle and Other Jllld Life. 



it is vitally important that I know something- of Ornithology in 

 general, and of the related departments of Natural History — no 

 mean task. i)i course, only those who have been fortunate 

 enough to have given a whole lifetime to such pursuits ever 

 really become accomplished zoologists ; but the half-loaf is better 

 than none. On the other hand, I have always liked, and to 

 some extent dabbled in. the natural sciences; and with this slight 

 foundation for more extensive studies trust that during a dili- 

 gent pursuit for. say. five or six years, of ornithology in its 

 literary and other aspects I may pick up sufficient information to 

 justify a review, by no means final, of that highly specialised 

 sense, avian vision, and perhaps acquire a working knowledge of 

 the apparatus that apparently brings it about in a few of the 

 fifteen thousand species that now populate the bird world. As 

 a result of these inquiries, I may add one or two facts to those 

 already accepted. Then, later, other and better equipped 

 observers will furnish their quota, so that we may know at last 

 something about a subject of which at the present writing little 

 is really known. Furthermore, an increase of our knowledge 

 of eyesight in bird families will with certainty help to an under- 

 standing of the same function in Man. 



So, that's that; but there are other reasons why we 

 consider the Tropics no mean place in which to spend the winter, 

 among them the fact there are available so many British Colonial 

 possessions, with their charming circles of well-read, highly 

 educated and widely travelled officials. For example, during 

 the very first week of our two months' residence in Barbados, 

 the U.S. Consul. Major J. J. C. Watson, went out of his official 

 way to arrange a luncheon at the Bridgetown Club that I might 

 meet those zoologists of the Island who would most likely be of 

 use to me in my bird investigations and. about the same time, 

 F and I were " put up " at the two principal clubs. So we 

 were able to see not a little of the charming social life of the 

 colony. 



Although we. as Americans witliout official status, had 

 some hesitation about writing our names in the visitors' book 

 at Government House, and did not. as a matter of fact, observe 

 that or the other convention of a first call, yet in spite of what 

 some peoole might regard as a " gaucherie," were invited there, 



