AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO GERMAN 

 EDITION 



BORN in a small town of the Mark of Brandenburg, and enjoy- 

 ing only so much of school education as, more than sixty 

 years ago, the choir-master, sub-rector, and rector of our native 

 youth were able to instil into me, with the aid of a tough hazel 

 rod, nothing in the world would have seemed farther removed 

 than the thought of my ever ' writing a book,' had not Nature 

 herself put the pen into my hand. My resolve to pass a number 

 of years immediately by the sea, as a marine painter, led me to 

 a spot which, from an ornithological point of view, is literally 

 without a rival in the world. 



Here my artist's attachment for open nature could not fail 

 to bring me in contact with the wonderful variety of bird-life 

 hi which this island abounds ; and my desire to possess some 

 of these creatures, so charming in all their acts and movements, 

 led to the formation of a small collection. 



With the possession of these examples, however, there came 

 a longing for a sound and fundamental knowledge of the material 

 I had accumulated. Hence resulted many years of study of the 

 bird-life of this island, and the comparison of its avifauna with that 

 of other localities. From these studies and researches I was 

 led to recognise that this little island presented an undreamt- 

 of wealth of material valuable to Science, and indeed in this 

 respect was superior to the proudest empire of the earth. At 

 the same time, however, it became more and more plain to me 

 that one to whom exceptional facilities had been granted for 

 gaining a complete insight and knowledge in an important 

 field of Natural History, ought not to let his experiences pass away 



