XV111 INTRODUCTION. 



Up and down ! up and down ! 



From the base of the wave to the billow's crown, 



And amidst the flashing and feathery foam 



The Stormy Petrel finds a home, — 



A home, if such a place may be, 



For her who lives on the wide wide sea, 



On the craggy ice, in the frozen air, 



And only seeketh her rocky lair 



To warm her young, and to teach them spring 



At once o'er the waves on then - stormy wing ! 



Thus wherever the Ornithologist goes, he has still 

 his favourite objects before him — whether in the 

 close alleys of a city, among the ivy-clad remains of 

 a mouldering fortalice, in the garden, on the moor, 

 by the streamlet, on the mountain top, or on the far 

 sea wave, he may always revel with ever fresh de- 

 light in the contemplation of those creatures with 

 which the great Creator has so kindly peopled the 

 air, the earth, the waters. 



Let us then pursue those studies so obviously 

 marked out for us by Him who commanded us to 

 behold the lilies of the field, and who "careth for 

 the Sparrows." It is a study which will truly be 

 found " health in sickness, and a sine anchor to the 

 mind when the current of life rims adverse or tur- 

 bulent," and thus let us peacefully pursue our eleva- 

 ting contemplations, which link us to the Creator 

 through his creatines, in the humble confidence 

 that " a srood Naturalist cannot be a bad man." 



