PREFACE 7 



whom he had kept in the forest since babyhood, causing them 



to reply, bitterly: 



Out of your proof you speak; we, poor unfledged, 

 Have never wing'd from view o' the nest. . . . 



But I am far from decrying the advantages of travel to 

 the naturalist. The point is that close knowledge of particu- 

 lar birds comes from concentration, and that a bush dweller 

 who applies himself to his own locality can learn things 

 excellent things that are denied men who traffic up and 

 down and, maybe, "translate" Nature by means of mere 

 lists and catalogues. How seldom this is conceded by the 

 stay-at-home, much less by the traveller! 



Some years ago, when attempting to get together the life- 

 history of a certain bird, I wrote a naturalist who had studied 

 the species, for corroboration on one or two points. The 

 reply was a little startling. My friend had given up bird- 

 study for the time being, it appeared, because he had 

 "worked out" his district. Save us from such shallow be- 

 liefs! There is no such thing as working out the ornitho- 

 logical interest of a district. It is possible, by constant 

 watchfulness, to achieve something like a complete record 

 of the birds in a certain area, but the character and habits 

 of those birds are studies that age cannot wither nor custom 

 stale. 



Sir Wm. Beach Thomas, who is at present in Australia, has 

 given me an eloquent instance on the point. He wrote a 

 paragraph for the London Daily Mail dealing with the song 

 of the Blackbird, and within a day or two he received 160 

 letters on the subject a host of varying opinions. There 

 you have a bird-voice among the most familiar in the world, 

 something as old as British history, but one that is not yet 

 understood, not yet humanised, not yet "captured." Who 

 shall say, then, that the birds of any district in this young 

 land are "worked out" on mere bowing acquaintance? 



One of our leading ornithologists observed recently that 

 Australian birds whose complete life histories had been 

 written could be counted on the fingers of one hand. That 

 is true enough, and it brings us again to the need for con- 

 centration in study to the fact that there is usually more 

 intimate natural history to be gained from hour's repose 



