PREFACE 



THERE are hosts of people who have a genuine love of 

 our native birds without yearning to possess their 

 skins, or desiring to acquire the reputation of being 

 " Ornithologists." They would call them aU by name 

 if they could, but seek, alas ! in vain, for some book 

 wherein they wiU find some magic phrase which will enable 

 them to identify every bird they meet by the wayside. 



Most of our native birds have learnt that " discretion is 

 the better part of valour," when in the neighbourhood of 

 Man. Hence one gets but too often no more than a fleeting 

 glance at their retreating forms, which, from frequent en- 

 counters, have become familiar, yet they leave no more than 

 a vague image in the memory. " What bird was that ? I 

 have often seen it but have never succeeded in taking it 

 unawares." This is a question, and its comment, often 

 put to me. 



Those who are in this quandary, and they are many, are 

 always hoping to find some book which will enable them to 

 correctly name the retreating forms. That book wUl never 

 be written. In the following pages an attempt is made to 

 aid such inquirers, and at the same tiihe the difficulties of 

 the task are pointed out. 



It is hoped, however, that this attempt will find a welcome 

 among those for whom it is made. If it helps thein to under- 

 stand something, at least, of the absorbing and fascinating 

 problems which the study of flight in the animal kingdom 

 presents, it will at least have served some usefid purpose. 



IX 



