ISTBODUCTION ix 



began to like them better now that they pecked 

 less at the other birds, she says : ' Neither they 

 nor the other birds ever do anything that can be 

 recorded now that I have the note-book. How- 

 ever, I have written an introduction to the book 

 that is (not) to be, in which I have set down all I 

 remember of past bird-traits ; and have also found 

 a motto for the same, with which I am delighted. 

 It is from Monckton Milnes' poems : 



" The World is large ; these things are small ; 

 They may be nothing but they are all." 



Don't you think it would be very appropriate ? ' 



1 All ' they certainly were not to her ; though 

 only those who knew her well could realise how 

 much her life was enriched and cheered by the 

 never-failing interest of her bird companionship. 



She had originally meant to devote her life to 

 the pursuit and practice of Art, and her father's 

 endeavours to secure good teaching for her brought 

 her into contact with Mulready, and afterwards, 

 through the introduction of their old friend, Misss 

 Mitford, of ' Our Village,' with Haydon the 

 painter. In some retrospective notes written in 

 1873 Miss Hayward says : ' We visited poor 



