vill PREFACE 
lilac hedges and berry-bearing shrubs were planted. The 
following spring he had the reward of being able to count 
fifteen nests and the visits of thirty-four species of birds. 
His love of nature was not merely sentimental or theo- 
retical. He was an enthusiastic, practical gardener—he 
liked to dig in the soil and to spread manure. He planted 
with the precision and skill of an artist; he sowed seeds with 
equal zest; and, after a rain, he loved to fork around, and 
thus to make each bulb, perennial, or vegetable ‘‘comfort- 
able.” Nor were the poetical accompaniments of the craft 
ever absent. Morning and evening—before his office hours 
and after—he walked around the garden, bathing himself 
in greenness, and in the odour of lilacs, roses, and new- 
mown grass. Then it was he spoke to every flower and 
bird, no matter how small or how shy, and held converse 
with the chipmunks and squirrels, who held a safe tenure 
within the garden precincts. 
After his immediate community was convinced of the 
need of bird conservation, and Rockliffe Park and the Ex- 
perimental Farm became sanctuaries, he went farther 
afield: in every province in the Dominion he addressed 
meetings on the subject of the conservation of our wild 
life. 
This is but a short record of the ideals which led to the 
making of this book, and of the character of him who 
wrote it. A great deal might be said by me in faithful 
and thankful acknowledgment of that character, but which 
would, in the end, seem to me cold and inadequate. I can, 
therefore, only take refuge in the words of another, one who 
valued him level with his deserts, who truly recognized his 
wonderful gifts, and who appreciated the way in which 
they were ever employed for the brightening of this world. 
I quote from the memoir by his friend, Duncan Campbell 
Scott, in the proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada: 
‘‘His death was tragic in its suddenness. He had at- 
