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AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



THE photographs which are reproduced in the pages 

 of this book were collected during some portions of a 

 stay of six months in the Canary Islands, and during 

 periods of a visit of about the same length of time in 

 South Africa, and although while I was engaged in 

 taking them I had no intention of bringing these photo- 

 graphs out in book form, so many people have asked 

 me what I am going to do with them that I have 

 decided to place them in some way before the public. 

 Had I anticipated bringing out a book, I should have 

 obtained many additional items of interest, and should 

 have verified others, which have been left out because 

 of insufficient identification. As an example of this, I 

 may mention the botany of the various districts to 

 which these pages relate, this branch of natural history 

 being often so closely associated with the nesting 

 habits of birds. 



With regard to the illustrations themselves, it has 

 been my aim to present the birds apart from their nests, 

 this plan seeming to show their various attitudes more 

 clearly, and I may here state that in the case of every 

 reproduction, the object has been portrayed in a per- 

 fectly wild state, and among its natural surroundings. 



Perhaps the ideal way of showing a bird, would be 

 that in which its natural surroundings are included in 



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