PREFACE. VU 



and girls, and some older people, living in different 

 parts of the country, wrote letters to me, saying that 

 they were looking for the book on birds, and that 

 they wanted to get a peep at it very much. So I 

 made up my mind to publish it — and here it is, 

 dedicated to all the boys and girls, in general, and 

 to the good ones, in particular. 



I am in love with the birds, dear reader. I am 

 deeply in love with them. Many a time, since my 

 residence in the city, when I have been able to 

 spend a few days in the country, have I been affected 

 almost to tears by the sweet music of Bird Land. 

 And it is not for their music alone, that I love these 

 light-hearted, fairy things ; for many of them have 

 no song, or but a poor one. I love them — those, 

 especially, who hover near our dwellings, and build 

 their nests in our orchards and on the trees, even, 

 in our door-yards — I love them for their beauty, their 

 innocence, their love for each other, their familiar 

 and confiding disposition. And their nests, too I 

 How curious, how wonderful they are ! 



'•' It wins my admiration 

 To view the structure of that httle work — 

 A bird's nest. Mark it well, within, without; 

 I^'a tool liath he that ^Touoht ; no knife to cut ; 



