Foreword ix 



us> has eaten our salt, our relations toward that 

 person have changed. We have been looked 

 upon with the eyes of friendship we have been 

 trusted, and if we are even half decent we cannot 

 betray our trust. Through the primitive man 

 which is in most of us, we may kill a bird which 

 we see in the wilderness, a stranger and on his 

 guard ; but the bird which comes to our garden, 

 to our home, onto our hand perhaps, at our 

 express invitation, we must protect with all the 

 manliness, with all the womanliness in our make- 

 up. I shall never forget the first time a chick- 

 adee alighted upon me, and I felt his wiry little 

 hands close .around my finger, while he cocked 

 his head on one side and looked up at me from 

 under his little black cap, as much as to say, 

 "Is it all right? Honest?" 



It surely was all right! I was a champion 

 of the chickadee from that moment, and to-day 

 I can think of no surer way for a man to effect 

 an instant quarrel with me than by injuring a 

 bird of this species. And a love for one bird 

 tends to beget a love for other birds. 



For the past few years I have been watching 

 the results of studied kindness and hospitality 

 to the birds, and the results have been good. 

 I have seen the attitude of a whole town change 

 from one of utter indifference to birds, to one of 



