CHAPTER I 



BIRDS AT THEIR BEST 



{By way of Introduction) 



Years ago, in a chapter concerning eyes in a 

 book of Patagonian memories, I spoke of the 

 unpleasant sensations produced in me by the 

 sight of stuffed birds. Not bird skins in the 

 drawers of a cabinet, it will be understood, these 

 being indispensable to the ornithologist, and very 

 useful to the larger class of persons who without 

 being ornithologists yet take an intelligent interest 

 in birds. The unpleasantness was at the sight of 

 skins stuffed with wool and set up on their legs 

 in imitation of the living bird, sometimes (oh 

 mockery !) in their " natural surroundings." 

 These " surroundings " are as a rule constructed 

 or composed of a few handfuls of earth to form 



B 



