PREFACE. 



" What, another bird-book ! " someone may feel tempted 

 to exclaim, on reading the title of the present volume;. 

 " surely there are enough of them and to spare." 



But is that so ? 



When a subject is practically inexhaustible and as yet 

 only its merest outside fringe has been touched upon, it 

 is obvious that there is still something to be said about 

 it, especially as new facts are being noted every day, and 

 discoveries made that were uadreamt of even a short time 

 before. Further, there is as much to unlearn as to learn. 

 If history has been built up out of fable, as some assert 

 is the case, much more is this true of Natural History, 

 which is founded, not only on fable, but on ignorance and 

 prejudice as well. 



Error is tenacious of existence — as hard to kill, indeed, 

 as the proverbial cat — and one reason for this is that when 

 the average person has accepted or imagined a mistake,, 

 cuddled, petted, and made much of it for years and years, 

 not to speak of pledging his credit on its behalf, it takes- 

 a good deal of persuading to induce him to cast it adrift 

 and transfer his affections to the truth. 



The feat, however, though difficult, is not impossible 

 of accomplishment, providing the said average person's 

 opponent only goes the right way to work and, while 

 steadily upholding his own protege, treads upon as few 



