PREFACE 



THE object of this book is definite and restricted. No 

 claim is made on its behalf to rank as a complete 

 or a scientific treatise on Australian birds. It is 

 simply a record of eleven years' work — if a pleasant 

 occupation may be termed work — among the native birds 

 of a limited portion of our great Continent, and a testimony 

 in pictures to the possibilities of Nature photography. 



Our decision, as young observers entirely unequipped 

 in literary ability, to commit our experiences to writing, was 

 a momentous one. The idea originated in a deep desire 

 to see placed in the hands of the public, especially of the 

 younger generation, a volume which would set out clearly 

 the possibilities and the accessibility of bird observation by 

 means of the camera. We are convinced that the object 

 of such a publication will commend itself to Nature lovers 

 as well as to photographers. 



The possibilities of bird photography, we know, are not 

 for the first time herein demonstrated, as there are already 

 books available which contain excellent pictures of Austra- 

 lian birds in their natural surroundings. 



The accessibility of this method of study to the observer 

 of slender means, however, has not hitherto been touched 

 upon, and it is in this direction that we hope our book may 

 justify its existence. For some reason unexplained, bird 

 photography has been regarded as an expensive hobby. 

 The results we have been able to obtain, with an inexpen- 

 sive outfit and without travelling *far afield, should help to 

 dispel such an idea. 



The photographs reproduced represent the best of some 

 hundreds of studies taken during pleasant week-end 

 acquaintanceship with the bush and its inhabitants. There 

 are no faked pictures, no tame birds, no wounded subjects. 

 Our plant, moreover, comprised only two cheap cameras, an 



