xxii Introduction 



instincts of birds is definitely fixed in this latitude, and extends 

 from the middle of April to the middle of July, while two or 

 three weeks could be advantageously added at either end of 

 this quarter-year period. My professional duties have always 

 kept me at my post until most of the golden opportunities of the 

 year were lost, so that the work had to be done at the lag end 

 of the season. 



In no other study is continuous effort at a particular time 

 more essential. A rare chance may come in May or June, but if 

 one is interrupted or called away for a day or even for an hour, 

 it maybe lost and never return. To obtain the best results, the 

 student of the life and instincts of animals must be a free lance, 

 and unhampered by the burdens and conventions of life. At 

 some future time, I hope to offer a fuller account of my ob- 

 servations. 



VI 



For comparison with the modern results of photography, I 

 am able to present reproductions of the most ancient pictures of 

 the home life of birds which have come down to us. 



The oldest representations of nesting birds introduce us to 

 the celebrated hunting scenes of the ancient Egyptians, in 

 which their spirits are pursuing the favorite sport of hunting 

 in the reeds and the marshes of the Nile. These were cut in 

 stone-relief and colored, on the walls of famous tombs in the 

 neighborhood of Memphis. They date from the Fifth Dynasty 

 and are considerably over four thousand years old. In the 

 papyrus thickets fly birds of many kinds, while others sit on 

 conventional saucer-shaped nests, which are balanced on the 

 flowers of this plant. (See Fig. 109.) 



But more interesting than these is a painting in colors on the 

 wall of a tomb, probably of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and over 

 three thousand years old, recently discovered at' Kurna, Thebes, 

 and first placed on exhibition in March, 1904. (See p. xxiii.) 



The drawing which is here given represents the detail of a 

 remarkable tree, in which the artist has represented in different 

 registers the foliage, the trunk and branches, and a vine (grafted 



