viii PREFACE 



lilac hedges and berry-bearing shrubs were planted. The 

 following spring he had the reward of being able to count 

 fifteen nests and the visits of thirty-four species of birds. 



His love of nature was not merely sentimental or theo- 

 retical. He was an enthusiastic, practical gardener — he 

 liked to dig in the soil and to spread manure. He planted 

 with the precision and skill of an artist; he sowed seeds with 

 equal zest; and, after a rain, he loved to fork around, and 

 thus to make each bulb, perennial, or vegetable ''comfort- 

 able." Nor were the poetical accompaniments of the craft 

 ever absent. Morning and evening — before his office hours 

 and after — he walked around the garden, bathing himself 

 in greenness, and in the odour of lilacs, roses, and new- 

 mown grass. Then it was he spoke to every flower and 

 bird, no matter how small or how shy, and held converse 

 with the chipmunks and squirrels, who held a safe tenure 

 within the garden precincts. 



After his immediate community was convinced of the 

 need of bird conservation, and Rockliffe Park and the Ex- 

 perimental Farm became sanctuaries, he went farther 

 afield: in every province in the Dominion he addressed 

 meetings on the subject of the conservation of our wild 

 Hfe. 



This is but a short record of the ideals which led to the 

 making of this book, and of the character of him who 

 wrote it. A great deal might be said by me in faithful 

 and thankful acknowledgment of that character, but which 

 would, in the end, seem to me cold and inadequate. I can, 

 therefore, only take refuge in the words of another, one who 

 valued him level with his deserts, who truly recognized his 

 wonderful gifts, and who appreciated the way in which 

 they were ever employed for the brightening of this world. 

 I quote from the memoir by his friend, Duncan Campbell 

 Scott, in the proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada: 



"Plis death was tragic in its suddenness. He had at- 



