DEDICATORY 



After all has been said for the observant love of 

 nature the best is that it can keep its votary young 

 at heart in a world like this. The birds in par- 

 ticular, friends the same yesterday, today and to- 

 morrow, may even prove the source of a certain 

 faith. Confiding, vivacious; so intense in their 

 fellings, so impulsive, so overflowing with life, 

 so full of freedom and song or the spirit of 

 song — they are in a remarkable degree congenial 

 with what is fairest and best in childhood ; indeed 

 they may well be regarded as symbolic of it. 

 To "Joe," "Brownie" and "Hope." his children, in 

 whose presence and the birds' he finds his own 

 childhood largely revivified, the author lovingly 

 dedicates this little book. 



