Pretace. 
HERE are hosts of people who have a genuine love of our native 
|) bee without yearning to possess their skins, or desiring to acquire 
the reputation of being “ Ornithologists.” They would call them all 
by name if they could, but seek, alas ! in vain, for some book wherein they 
will find some magic phrase which will enable them to identify every bird 
they meet by the wayside. 
Most of our native birds have learnt that “discretion is the better 
part of valour,’ when in the neighbourhood of Man. Hence one gets but 
too often no more than a fleeting glance at their retreating forms, which, 
from frequent encounters, have become familiar, yet they leave no more 
than a vague image in the memory. ‘‘ What bird was that? I have 
often seen it but have never succeeded in taking it unawares.”” This is a 
question, and its comment, often put to me. 
Those who are in this quandary, and they are many, are always hoping 
to find some book which will enable them to correctly name the retreating 
forms. That book will never be written. In the following pages an attempt 
is made to aid such enquirers, and at the same time the difficulties of the 
task are pointed out. 
It is hoped, however, that this attempt will find a welcome among 
those for whom it is made. If it helps them to understand something, at 
least, of the absorbing and fascinating problems which the study of flight 
in the animal kingdom presents, it will at least have served some useful 
purpose. 
The pursuit of the flying bird will inevitably stimulate a desire to 
know more about the bewildering changes of plumage presented at different 
