Vlll 



Preface 



a bird's foot. It is to bridge this gap that this book is 

 intended an untechnical study of the bird in the abstract. 

 This, it seems to me, is the logical phase of bird life, 

 which, with an earnest nature-lover, should follow the 

 handbook of identification the study of the physical 

 life of the bird itself preceding the consequent phase 

 of the mental life, with its ever-varying outward ex- 

 pression. 



Far from considering this treatment exhaustive, one 

 must remember that any chapter subject could easily 

 be elaborated into one or more volumes. I have intended 

 the book more as an invitation than aught else: for each 

 to observe for himself the marvellously fascinating drama 

 of evolution; to pass on from the nature stories of ideal- 

 ized composite animals and birds to the consideration of 

 the evolution of all life; to the tales of time and truth 

 which have been patiently gleaned by the life-long labours 

 of thousands of students. 



Whenever possible I have illustrated a fact with a 

 photograph from a preparation or from a living bird, 

 believing that, where verbal exposition fails, pictorial 

 interest will often fix a fact in the memory. First of all 

 we must consider a few of the more important and sig- 

 nificant of the bird-forms of past ages; because no one 

 who is interested in living birds from any standpoint 

 should be entirely ignorant of a few facts concerning the 

 ancestors of these creatures: Otherwise it is as if one, 

 entirely ignoring the rest of the plant, studied certain 

 leaves and flowers, knowing not whether they came from 

 tree or vine. 



