2 
INTRODUCTION. 
It is true that we have scentless, bright blossoms; but Aus- 
tralia is the home of the richly-perfumed wattle, and the 
boronia, with its never-cloying fragrance; while there is, per- 
haps, no forest more odorous than a forest of eucalypts. It 
is true, too, that we have bright birds that have no excellence 
in song; but it is also true that, in this favored land, there is a 
far greater proportion than usual of fine song-birds. 
The first generations of Australians were not taught to love 
Australian things. We **learned from our wistful mothers to 
call Old England home." Our school books and our story 
books were made in Great Britain for British boys and girls, 
and naturally they stressed what was of interest to these boys 
and girls. We read much about the beauty of the songs of 
the Lark, and the Thrush, and the Nightingale, but we found 
no printed authority for the belief that our Magpie is one of 
the great song-birds of the world; we read of the wonderful 
powers of the American Mocking-Bird, and did not know that 
our beautiful Lyrebird is a finer mimic; we learned by heart 
Barry Cornwall's well-known poem on **The Storm Petrel," 
and did not know that one of the most interesting of Petrel 
rookeries is near the harbor gate of Melbourne; and I remem- 
ber well a lesson I heard as a boy on the migration of birds, in 
which the teacher took all of his illustrations from his boyish 
experiences in the South of England, and gave us no idea that 
the annual migration of our familiar Australian birds to far-off 
Siberia is a much more wonderful thing. 
But all this is being rapidly changed. In the elementary 
schools Nature-study is steadily improving, and children 
are being given an eye for, and an interest in, the 
world of Nature around them. Our school books are 
now written from the Australian standpoint, and more 
use can, therefore, be made of the child's everyday experi- 
ence. Field Naturalists' clubs are doing much to extend 
the area of specialized Nature-study, and their members are 
giving valuable assistance to the schools by taking part in the 
programs for Arbor Day, Bird Day, and the like. The 
growing interest in the Australian fauna and flora is further 
evidenced by the frequent reservations by Government of desirable 
areas as national parks and sanctuaries for the preservation of 
Australian types. Last, but not least, is the production by cap- 
able Nature students of special books on some form of Nature- 
study, such as this Bird Book by Mr. Leach. 
To our parents, Australia was a stranger land, and they were 
sojourners here. Though they lived here, they did not get close 
enough to it to appreciate fully its natural beauty and its charm. 
To us, and especially to our children, children of Australian-born 
parents, children whose bones were made in Australia, the place is 
home. To them Nature makes a direct appeal, strengthened by 
those most powerful of all associations, those gathered in child- 
hood, when the foundations of their minds were laid. The 
EngligJx boy, out on a breezy down, may feel an exaltation of soul 
