6 INTRODUCTION. 



common in our gardens as in England. And wherever they go 

 they carry so much that is fine in literature with them. But 

 there has not yet been time for our native birds to endear them- 

 selves to us. And so we hear only their song. Wise Shake- 

 speare says — 



"How many thi ngs by season seasoned are 

 To their right praise and true perfection." 



******* 



"The Nightingale, if she should sing by day, 

 When every goose is cackling, would be thought 

 No better a musician than the Wren." 



He knows that to the song of the bird must be its appropriate 

 setting, and that when Nature has done her part there is still 

 much to be supplied by ourselves. 



The outlook is, however, a hopeful one. Nature-study is 

 bringing our boys and girls into kindlier relationships 

 with our birds; suitable popular names will be forth- 

 coming for them; our poets will sing of them; our nursery 

 rhymes and our children's tales will tell of them; and the time 

 will come when even the birds now trying so hard to sing their 

 way into our hearts, while cursed with the names of "Rufous- 

 breasted Thickhead" and "Striated Field Wren or Stink Bird," 

 will mean to an Australian what "the Throstle with his note so 

 true" and "the Wren with little quill" do to an Englishman. 



Dr. Leach's valuable little book is a powerful contribution 

 to this much-to-be-desired result. 



FRANK TATE. 



HINTS FOR IDENTIFICATION 



A Yellow-tailed Tit-Warbler is about 4 in. long; a White-eye, 

 4.5in. ; a Sparrow, Bin. ; a House-Swallow, 6.5in.; a Sordid Wood- 

 Swallow, Tin.; a Black and White Fantail, 7.5 in.; a Starling, 

 8.5in.; a Harmonious Shrike-Thrush, 9.5in.; a Noisy Miner, lOin.; 

 a Magpie-Lark, 10.5in.; a Butcher-Bird, llin.; a Pallid Cuckoo, 

 121n.; a Rosella, 12.5in.; a Galah, 14in. ; a Wattle-Bird, 14. Bin.; 

 a Laughing Kingfisher, 17. Bin.; a White-backed Magpie, 18in. ; and 

 a Crow, 20in. (measured from the tip of tail to the tip of bill). 



Don't try to judge a bird's length in inches. 



Note one or two prominent markings, and the size of a bird; 

 say, larger than a Starling, but smaller than a Magpie-Lark. 

 Then get the length of these birds from the table above 

 (8Mn. and lO^in. respectively), and compare the descrip- 

 tion of each bird that comes between these lengths with 

 the illustrations and the bird before you. The birds are approxi- 

 mately relative size on each block. 



Use the index to find the page of a bird, then use the number, 

 if asterisked, to find the bird in the colored plate index. 



