AUTHOR'S PREFACE. XV 



room left in the mind for impure ones. Let 

 a young person become absorbed in some 

 interesting branch of natural history, and his 

 moral safety will be guaranteed. Yet all this 

 will be effected without any dull preachment, 

 without even the suggestion, to say nothing of 

 the obtrusion, of a moral purpose ; simply by 

 the native power that such studies possess for 

 expurgating the mind. Nor is the moral bene- 

 fit solely negative ; positive good is derived 

 from the contemplation of Nature, making the 

 observer more humble, devout, and unselfish. 



This little book of tidings from birdland 

 has been written with two purposes in mind. 

 The first is, to furnish actual instruction, to 

 tell some new facts about bird life that have 

 not yet been recited — that is, to give a little 

 bird " news." For the most part, it contains a 

 record of my own observations, and is there- 

 fore not a reiteration of what others have 

 said. I have gone to the birds themselves for 

 my facts, and have made very little use of 

 books. The reader is taken into the actual 

 outdoors. 



