viii PREFACE 



some of them, through the mere lust of killing, 

 others, through an inordinate, and selfish, and 

 short-sighted love of sport, which often defeats its 

 own object. 



Let me, even at the risk of anticipating what 

 may and must be said repeatedly, in other shapes, 

 in other parts of the volume, endeavour to explain 

 in a word or two, the scope and limits of my work 

 as regards these two main objects. 



First, my book does not aim at exhausting all 

 the knowledge that can be obtained even of those 

 birds of which it treats most fully. It contains a 

 series of studies or of sketches rather than of 

 complete pictures. Nor does it pretend to be 

 " scientific " in the strict, perhaps I might rather 

 say, in the narrower sense of that word. My 

 knowledge of anatomy and physiology, interesting 

 and essential though these studies are to " scientific " 

 knowledge, leaves a good deal to be desired. I 

 say nothing of the weights or of the measurements 

 of birds, or of the exact length of their feathers. I 

 could not dissect a bird, even if I would. I would 

 not dissect it, even if I could. My book deals, not 

 with the dead, but with the living bird ; least of all, 

 does it deal with the bird that has been "stuffed" 

 hateful word and confined for ever within the 



