Prelude 
Between the purely literary works upon orni- 
thology that flit about over the subject like a 
butterfly, and require a previous knowledge of 
birds for their full appreciation, and the tech- 
nical books of reference whose information is 
so methodical, impersonal, coldly accurate, and 
highly prosaic—between these extremes there 
seems to be a gap, which this book will per- 
haps help to fill. 
The path opening before us discloses also in 
its long vista a deeper enjoyment of nature in 
all her varied and manifold aspects. It is one 
of the charms of nature that her revealments 
and concealments go hand in hand. Every- 
where mystery covers all, like the fulness of the 
sea. To the sensitive soul no scene can be 
commonplace. Even the departed glories of 
primal Paradise seem faintly to linger and echo 
in a fair morning’s dewy and fragrant baptism 
of earth and air, in the resplendent sky-flush of 
purple and crimson, when 
‘* All the orient laugheth of the light,” 
and in the shower of song from every woodland 
choir; those ceremonials that usher in the 
dawning of a summer’s day—a golden relic for 
a fallen world. 
15 
