PREFACE 



tions, spared no pains to give the details of 

 some dovecote which they either owned or 

 knew. In a few cases only was the inform- 

 ation asked for tacitly refused. 



All over Britain, from Caithness to Corn- 

 wall, there have risen up to help me those who, 

 total strangers when the post presented at 

 their heads a blunderbuss of questions, now, 

 in many cases, seem to occupy the place of 

 kindly friends, so heartily have they assisted, 

 and so generous the encouragement and inter- 

 est which they offered to the work. Clergy 

 have left their studies, farmers snatched an 

 hour fromthe busy fieldsof spring; landowners, 

 ladies — terms no doubt at times synonymous, 

 — with army officers and naval men,have gone 

 out into yard or field or garden, there to photo- 

 graph or sketch, to measure walls and windows, 

 note the number and the shape of nest-holes, 

 so that they might send so clear and full a 

 verbal picture of their dovecote that it seem- 

 ed to stand before my eyes. To name a few 

 would be invidious, and to speak of all im- 

 possible. They must be fully conscious of the 

 lavish measure of their kindness to a stranger, 



xi 



