INTRODUCTION 



THE study of birds, or Ornithology, began long 

 before the dawn of civilisation. At first, to 

 primitive man the bird represented only a kind 

 of food, and the study of birds' habits and peculiari- 

 ties must have had its beginning after pursuit had 

 made birds wary and only to be caught by some 

 knowledge of their character and haunts. With bet- 

 ter knowledge of birds, as of other animals, it was 

 found that some species might be kept and bred in 

 captivity, thus giving a regular and certain kind of 

 food. With the keeping of fowls, of dogs, of cattle, 

 sheep, and horses, began the pastoral or shepherd 

 stage of civilisation, which came earliest in man's up- 

 ward progress toward a settled life. All the complex 

 communities of to-day may be traced back to such 

 simple beginnings, and the domestication of animals 

 was by no means a small factor in man's progress. 

 The freedom of birds, their mastery of the regions of 

 the air, their mysterious goings and comings — some, 

 or all, of these gave them a peculiar fascination and 

 caused them from the earliest times to be regarded 

 with religious awe as being closely allied to the gods, 

 or with superstitious fear and reverence as partaking 

 of the strange powers of the air, No doubt they 

 seemed to be in some sense dwellers in lands of the 



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