PREFACE 



IN this book I have made an attempt to talk 

 over with young people who are fond of birds 

 the points which have always interested me in 

 my studies of them and I have studied birds 

 ever since I can remember. What I have 

 always cared about in connexion with them 

 has been their ways of living, their habits and 

 tricks, and their minds and thoughts, so far as 

 we know them to have any. I have also 

 always paid particular attention to the dis- 

 tinguished and remarkable birds of all parts 

 of the world, and not to the birds of one 

 country only. I find that most people who 

 are not specialists in ornithology, young people 

 especially, share my tastes in bird-study, and 

 this has encouraged me to pen these chapters, 



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