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PREFACE. 



TT has been our endeavour to produce an account of 

 one of the Feathered Families of Britain, written 

 in a style which would be likely to interest the young, 

 and yet claim the attention of those of maturer years and 

 riper judgment. We have thrown as much of the 

 picturesque into our sketches as possible, and drawn 

 largely upon those who have studied most closely the 

 habits of the creatures described, in their homes and 

 haunts. Of anecdotes, serving to illustrate traits of 

 character, the manners, and morals, so to speak, of the 

 members of the Bird-world around us, we have not been 

 sparing, taking care, however, to select such only as bore 

 the stamp of authenticity ; and from the poets we have 

 borrowed many sweet lyrics and graphic pictures, to set 

 in the framework of our sober prose, and thus enrich, 

 and lighten, and vivify the whole. We want our readers 

 to understand what kind of lives the feathered creatures 

 live, to study their habits, to love them, and to care for 

 them, as their Heavenly Father does. 



We do not claim for ours the character of a scientific 



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