CASSELL'S 



BOOK OF BIRDS 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. 



Jj E were some time ago both delighted and astonished by the performances of a German 

 artist, who imitated with wonderful exactness the notes of a variety of birds. The song 

 of the nightingale and the warblings of the skylark, the whistling of the throstle and 

 the out-poured melody of the canary, were gone through with such perfect execution, 

 that the birds themselves, we thought, could scarcely have detected a flaw in the per- 

 formance. This gifted individual introduced himself to his audience by a somewhat 

 humorous account of the manner in which he had acquired his extraordinary powers. He told us 

 that his father, who was a breeder of birds, had upon one occasion gone from home, leaving a bag 

 of rice as provision for his children, and a quantity of bird-seed for his feathered proteges. By some 

 mistake the rice had been given to the birds, and the bird-seed to the children, the consequence 

 being, that on the gentleman's return he found his birds all dead, and his children singing like piping 

 bullfinches. How far this explanation was satisfactory we will not stop to inquire ; but we have 

 sometimes been almost tempted to suppose that some similar accident must be of frequent 

 occurrence in Germany. The deep acquaintance of the ornithologists of that country with the 

 objects of their study, and the fidelity with which they note down the minutest incidents connected 

 with the history of their favourites, surpassing anything achieved by other naturalists, not even 

 excepting such enthusiastic labourers as Wilson and Audubon, demands our warmest praise ; 

 while the patient industry, so conspicuous in their writings, at once calls for and excites our 

 admiration. 



Among the foremost of his countrymen in the cultivation of ornithological research stands the 

 author of the magnificent work whose pages it is our wish to lay before English readers. Not 

 content with studying the natural history of his favourites from books, or even in the rich scientifically 

 arranged collections contained in so many Continental museums, his zeal led him to follow them even 

 into their own wild retreats, and, gun in hand, to penetrate the burning deserts of Eastern Africa, 

 and the equally inhospitable, and then but little known, regions of Abyssinia. By thus familiarising 

 himself with the habits of birds in their native haunts, and amid the scenery whereby they are 

 surrounded in a state of nature, he has been enabled to impart a freshness to his descriptions 

 as characteristic of the real naturalist as the smell of new-made hay is redolent of fields and 

 hedgerows, and no more to be imitated by the mere compiler than the voice of an orator by the 

 reporter of his speeches. 



Before, however, we permit our author to speak for himself, it may perhaps be desirable to 

 preface his remarks by a few general observations concerning the structure of the beautiful 

 creatures that form the subjects of his teaching, inasmuch as it is obviously desirable to have 

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