Introductory 



yellow-billed cuckoo's nest containing two eggs, which showed 

 that incubation was far advanced. It was three days before I had 

 another chance to visit the nest. During this interval the young 

 had hatched, and when I saw them they were little naked objects 

 with but the first beginnings of pin feathers showing. Unfortu- 

 nately, 1 did not know their exact age (as you can see, notes should 

 be exact down to days and hours), but as I visited them day by 

 day I noticed how the feathers grew. Instead of breaking through 

 the envelopes gradually, as do the feathers of other birds, the little 

 cuckoo's feathers remained sheathed and finely pointed until the 

 day before the birds left the nest. Then in twenty-four hours 

 every envelope burst, and the bird was completely feathered, 

 with no trace of the sheathing except at the base of the tail. 

 Had I taken the eggs 1 should not have been able to note this 

 fact (which 1 have not been able to find any record of in the 

 books) or to secure the amusing photograph which is reproduced 

 further on. 



While 1 deprecate the taking of eggs as being in most cases 

 entirely unnecessary, I should strongly advise both boys and girls 

 to look for nests. It will be a means of developing a love of 

 nature in one of its most attractive forms, and it will stimulate 

 the powers of observation and add to the knowledge of birds in 

 striking degree. 



The love of nature in any form is an acquisition well worth 

 striving for. Besides adding enormously to one's interest in a 

 walk, whether on the high road or along the woodland paths, it is 

 a resource which would do a great deal towards banishing that 

 silly phrase, " 1 wish I had something to do." How often do we 

 hear people say that, even when living in the country where wild 

 life in its thousands of different phases exists all around them, un- 

 noticed by all except the very few who are devoting themselves to 

 some particular study. Unfortunately the power of observation 

 is lacking in most of us who have not been trained to it — we look 

 without seeing. Mr. Burroughs says that "some people seem 

 born with eyes in their heads, and others with buttons or painted 

 marbles, and no amount of science can make the one equal to the 

 other in the art of seeing things." But even those who by ill- 

 fortune are born without keen eyes can by constant practice cul- 

 tivate the faculty of observing to a surprising degree. 



That so little is known about the common birds is a good il- 



6 



