PREFACE 3 



prizes for the one who could collect the greatest number 

 of wild flowers and knew most about the trees. In the 

 town I collected bird pictures, nursed an occasional 

 wounded sparrow, kept my eyes open generally, and 

 read much of William and Mary Howitt. Then came 

 some years of school life the last two of these in 

 Germany, where the study of natural history has always 

 received more attention than has hitherto been the case 

 with us in England, and these were followed by a few 

 years at home on the moorlands of Staffordshire. Later 

 I had thirteen years of wandering in different parts of 

 the Pacific New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, California, 

 all of which strengthened my love of out-door life ; and 

 although my scientific knowledge was small, my 

 acquaintance with nature and my love of nature have 

 been ever growing. 



As years advanced, and I was no longer able to go so 

 far afield, it has been a great pleasure to me to 

 collaborate with other naturalists more than one of 

 these who, with greater opportunities for the practical 

 observation of birds have combined scientific research. 

 I have been glad to act as henchwoman to such and 

 to be, as it were, the little bird that in its playful and 

 circling way follows the flight of the greater bird in 

 the heavens. 



And as I edited with much gain to my own know- 

 ledge the records of observations of the working 

 naturalist styled "A Son of the Marshes," so I am 

 glad also to be able to present to our English readers 

 these chapters on the Man and the Bird, and their 

 relative significance in the great field of agriculture. 



I visited M. and Madame Herman at their home in the 

 beautiful Hungarian valley of Lillafured, where his 



