2 INTRODUCTIOX. 



It is true that we have scentless, bright blossoms; but Aus- 

 tralia is the home of the richly-perfumed watile, and the 

 boronia, with its never-cloying fragrance; while there is, per- 

 haps, no forest more odorous than a forest of eucalypts. It 

 is true, too, that we have bright birds that have no excellence 

 in song; but it is also true that, in this favored land, there is a 

 far greater proportion than usual of fine song-birds. 



The first generations of Australians were not taught to love 

 Australian things. We "learned from our wistful mothers to 

 call Old England home." Our school books and our story 

 books were made in Great Britain for British boys and girls, 

 and naturally they stressed what was of interest to these boys 

 and girls. We read much about the beauty of the songs of 

 the Lark, and the Thrush, and the Nightingale, but we found 

 no printed authority for the belief that our Magpie is one of 

 the great song-birds of the world; we read of the wonderful 

 powers of the American Mocking-Bird, and did not know that 

 our beautiful Lyrebird is a finer mimic; w^e learned by heart 

 Barry Cornwall's well-known poem on "The Storm Petrel," 

 and did not know that one of the most interesting of Petrel 

 rookeries is near the harbor gate of Melbourne; and I remem- 

 ber well a lesson I heard as a boy on the migration of birds, in 

 which the teacher took all of his illustrations from his boyish 

 experiences in the South of England, and gave us no idea that 

 the annual migration of our familiar Australian birds to far-off 

 Siberia is a much more wonderful thing. 



But all this is being rapidly changed. In the elementary 

 schools Nature-study is steadily improving, and children 

 are being given an eye for, and an interest in, the 

 world of Nature around them. Our school books are 

 now written from the Australian standpoint, and more 

 use can, therefore, be made of the child's everyday experi- 

 ence. Field Naturalists' clubs are doing much to extend 

 the area of specialized Nature-study, and their members are 

 giving valuable assistance to the schools by taking part in the 

 programs for Arbor Day, Bird Day, and the like. The 

 growing interest in the Australian fauna and flora is further 

 evidenced by the frequent reservations by Government of desirable 

 areas as national parks and sanctuaries for the preservation of 

 Australian types. Last, but not least, is the production by cap- 

 able Nature students of special books on some form of Nature- 

 study, such as this Bird Book by Dr. Leach. 



To our parents, Australia was a stranger land, and they were 

 sojourners here. Though they lived here, they did not get close 

 enough to it to appreciate fully its natural beauty and its charm. 

 To us, and especially to our children, children of Australian-born 

 parents, children whose bones were made in Australia, the place is 

 home. To them Nature makes a direct appeal, strengthened by 

 those most powerful of all associations, those gathered in child- 

 hood, when the foundations of their minds were laid. The 

 English boy, out on a breezy down, may fee? an exaltation of soul 



