INTRODUCTION. 5 



ings ago I was charmed with an unaccustomed song coming 

 from out a big pittosporum tree in my garden at Kew. T took 

 careful note of the little warbler, and then consulted Dr. Leach's 

 Descriptive List. Judge of my satisfaction when I found that 

 my little friend was "The Striated Field Wren or Stink Bird"! 

 The Australian boy is responding splendidly to the Nature- 

 study movement. Bird observers tell me that shy native birds, 

 formerly unknown near the haunts of men, are making their 

 appearance, feeling safer now from molestation. Nest hunt- 

 ing for the sake of egg spoliation is happily becoming rarer, 

 although children are developing keener eyes for nests. To- 

 day every country school has its nests under loving observa- 

 tion for the purposes of bird-study and of bird-protection. 

 Walt. Whitman might have been describing many a Victorian 

 school boy when he wrote — 



"And every day the he-bird, to and fro, near at hand. 



And every day the she-bird, crouched on her nest, silent, with bright eyes, 

 And every day, I, a curious boy, never too close, never disturbing them, 

 Cautiously peering, absorbing, translating." 



This loving study must bear good fruit. Tf we believe the 

 scientific men, Australia is, par excellence, the land of birds, 

 song-birds, plumage-birds, and birds of wonderful interest, 

 such as the Satin Bower Bird. The collection of Australian 

 birds in our National Museum at Melbourne is certainly one of 

 the finest sights of the city, and it should be studied by all who 

 wish to know how favored this continent is in bird distribution. 

 But we must get to know and to love our feathered friends. 

 Dr. Leach in his lecture has dwelt sufficiently on the economic 

 and scientific value of bird-study. Let me enter a plea for 

 bird-study as a source of aesthetic pleasure. Before our Aus- 

 tralian birds can be to us what the Thrush and the Blackbird and 

 the Linnet and the Lark and the Nightingale are to the British 

 boy, we must have a wealth of association around them from song 

 and story. And this association must grow up with us from 

 childhood if it is to make the strongest appeal to us. It can 

 rarely be acquired in later life. British birds owe much to the 

 poets for the charm that surrounds them. When I heard the 

 Nightingale in England, although I had no association with it 

 gathered from my boyhood's days, I heard more than the bird's 

 song. I was listening to Keats and Wordsworth and Shakes- 

 peare as well. There is something very fine in the thought 

 that such bird songs go on for ever, that these immortal birds 

 are "not made for death," that 



"The voice I hear this passing nierht was heard 

 Tn ancient days by emperor and clown : 

 Perhaps the self-same song that found a path 

 Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home, 

 She stood in tears amid the alien corn." 



The Nightingale's song, as a bird song, T thought disappoint- 

 ing. I remember having the same feeling with regard to the 

 Thrush and Blackbird. The charm of their songs is largely 

 in the associations they evoke. Our city children are now grow- 

 ing up in familiarity with these two birds, which are becoming as 



