The pursuit of the flying bird will inevitably stimulate 
a desire to know more about the bewildering changes of 
plumage presented at different seasons of the year, as well 
as by the striking differences which often distinguish the two 
sexes, and the immature birds. The endeavour to satisfy 
this desire will open up a new world. Those who would pass 
to this knowledge should possess themselves of the Practical 
Handbook of British Birds. Though most severely practical, 
and designed for the serious student alone, even the beginner 
will find interest in the description of these several plumages, 
and much else beside that it is essential to know. 
Now that the study of flight is so much to the fore, some 
may turn to these pages in the hope of gaining useful informa- 
tion on the theme of mechanical flight. Some help they 
may find. But it was not for this that they were written. 
The flight of an aeroplane and the flight of a bird have little 
in common—at present ; though something may be learned 
by the study of gliding flight and soaring, which of course 
have their place in this book. But anatomical details and 
mechanical formule, necessary to the serious student of 
flight, would have been entirely out of place here, and they 
have been omitted. 
My task has been by no means easy. But it has been 
enormously helped by the extremely skilful and beautiful 
work of the artist, Mr. Roland Green. Where birds are 
concerned, few artists in the past, and very few in the present, 
have shown any ability to combine accuracy in drawing 
with ingenuity of composition and faithfulness in colouring. 
Mr. Green has shown this rare combination; his coloured 
plates and line-drawings speak for themselves. 
W. P. PYCRAFT. 
LONDON, 
September 1922. 
136 
