PREFACE 



THIS book deals largely with the wild birds of the 

 British Islands, and within its pages I hope I have 

 gathered some facts and photographs calculated to 

 kindle the interest of the ordinary reader and to stimu- 

 late that of my fellow-students in the welfare of our 

 feathered friends. 



I have been an observer of bird life all my days, but 

 never remember a time when members of the avian 

 world were so purposely persecuted as the present. It is 

 no exaggeration to say that quite 90 per cent, of the 

 nests, great and small, built in places accessible to the 

 general public are wantonly destroyed. The bird life 

 of any country has its economic as well as its aesthetic 

 side. Once upon a time the human inhabitants of a 

 certain corner of the earth decided to exterminate all 

 fowls of the air within their domain, but soon discovered 

 thaf, although the birds were quite able to live with- 

 out man, man could not exist without the assistance of 

 the insect-destroying members of the feathered tribe. 



I spent June of 1922 on the Westmorland Fells, and 

 shall never forget the sickening sights I saw of sheep 

 being eaten alive by maggots. This loathsome scourge 

 has greatly increased during recent years, and it needs 

 no great stretch of imagination to connect its ravages 

 with the distressing decrease of lapwings, skylarks, 



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