xxii BRITISH BIRDS 



it were, of its minute history.' It is precisely this ' minute 

 history ' that gives so great and enduring a fascination to the 

 study of birds in a state of nature. But it cannot be written, 

 on account of the infinity of ' passages ' contained in it, or, in 

 other words, of that element of mind which gives it endless 

 variety. 



Let us imagine the case of a youth or boy who has read 

 and re-read half a dozen long histories of some one species ; 

 and, primed with all this knowledge, who finally goes out to 

 observe it for himself. It will astonish him to find how 

 much he has not been told. He will begin to think that the 

 writers must have been hasty or careless, that they 

 neglected their opportunities, and missed much that they 

 ought not to have missed ; and he may even experience a 

 feeling of resentment towards them, as if they had treated 

 him unfairly. But after more time spent in observation he 

 will make the interesting discovery that, so long as they are 

 watched for, fresh things will continue to appear. The 

 reflection will follow that there must be a limit to the things 

 that can be recorded ; that the life-history of a bird cannot 

 be contained in any book, however voluminous it may be ; 

 and, finally, that books have a quite different object from 

 the one he had imagined. And in the end he will be more 

 than content that it should be so. 



W. H. II. 



