FOREWORD xi 



surely indicated, and the stolid dogmatism of the 

 old stand-patter ornithologists appears more inex- 

 cusable. 



It is a most arrogant attitude that man assumes 

 when he endeavours to explain everything in terms 

 of his own life and mind. What he does not him- 

 self possess or understand about his fellow creatures 

 he glosses over with such terms as "instinct" or 

 "evolutionary process." This persistent effort to 

 reason everything out in preconceived terms places 

 tremendous limitations upon the human under- 

 standing. We should maintain a thoroughly open 

 mind and approach Nature with the wonder of a 

 child. Profound in meaning was the speech of 

 the priest of Sais to the Greek Herodotus: "You 

 shall be children ever." 



It should be remembered that birds have a life, a 

 point of view, and a destiny of their own, and that 

 our failure to comprehend them in no way justifies 

 us in concluding that they are in every sense below 

 us in the scale of existence. That they are inferior 

 in many ways we have a right to believe, but we 

 should be eager to recognise the qualities in which 

 they excel. Who has not seen a look of majesty 

 and superiority in the eyes of an owl or of an eagle 

 and not felt a vague sense of awe and self-efFace- 

 ment ? 



