INTRODUCTION 



In the fall of 191G, while visiting at the home of 

 Mr. F. N. Doubleday, a member of the house which 

 publishes most of my books, in conversation with 

 my very dear friend Mrs. Neltje De Graff Double- 

 day, the author of a number of invaluable books 

 on birds and flowers, she began to question me 

 about unusual experiences I encountered afield. 

 I told her some of the things here recorded, the 

 queerest and most peculiar things that I had seen 

 during a lifetime of personal contact with the birds. 

 In the course of that intimate conversation, Mrs. 

 Doubleday conceived and planned this book, feel- 

 ing — ^I hope not mistakenly — that these intimate 

 personal experiences with birds, which so In- 

 tensely interested her, would not fail to be of 

 equal interest to other bird lovers and protectors. 

 She felt that these records faithfully and simply 

 set down would add very largely to the sum of 

 human achievement in a scientific estimate of the 

 habits and characteristics of birds. So, I have 

 written for any one who is interested, these sketches 

 of personal experience, as I outlined them to such a 

 devoted lover and champion of the birds as Neltje 

 Blanehan. 



