INI ROD OCTION. 
This book is called “Bird Portraits” because Mr. Seton-Thompson’s 
pictures are always faithful and charming portraits of the birds which he 
draws. But since a bird’s portrait, no matter how accurate, can show its 
subject in only one position, singing, feeding, flying, or sitting, a short account 
of some of the main events of the bird’s life has been added to each picture. 
Any one who learns from such books as Mr. Seton-Thompson’s how 
beset with perils is the life of every wild creature will take the greatest 
pains at all times, and especially in the nesting season, not only not to injure 
or persecute such defenseless little creatures as our song birds, but also to protect 
them in every way. Whoever seeks their acquaintance, in the spirit of 
Jriendship, will always be grateful for the interest and pleasure to be gained 
from such friends. 
Of the twenty birds whose portraits are here presented, a majority are 
only summer residents in the Northern States; some visit us only in winter; a 
few spend the whole year near the same spot. The birds which are first 
described are those that are most closely associated with the return of spring ; 
then follow those whose gay colors and bright songs give much of its charm 
to early summer; last come those that brave, even in the North, the tempests 
of winter. 
R. H. 
