88 EIRDS'-NESTING. 



you have deprived. The care that you take of nest 

 and eggs, and their serviceability in teaching yourself 

 and others, form the only excuse for rifling the homes 

 of the feathered denizens of woods and meadoAV. 



And now before closing this little book, which has 

 taken to itself the dimensions of a volume out of an 

 original intention looking merely to an essay, in a 

 self-arrogant way that has somewhat amazed me, I 

 would like to call your attention to a few of the 

 reasons why the study of the nidification of our 

 birds should be held important, and how it may be 

 made to contribute most valuable material to our 

 knowledge not only of the life of birds in general, 

 but to the whole of zoological science. 



THE HEART OF ORNITHOLOGY. 



As I have remarked at more length elsewhere : ^ 

 "The true home of a bird is Avhere it rears its 

 young, even though it be not there more than a third 

 of the year, and everywhere else it is merely a 

 traveler. " In contemplating its habits at this season, 

 we take the bird at home, see it at the zenith of its 

 career, when its life is most concentrated, its being 



1 Friends Worth Knowing: Glimpses of American Natural History, New 

 York, p. 99; Harper & Brothers, 1880. 



