VI 
PREFACE 
while photography thus acts as handmaid to history, 
even the ideal “film” of bird-life needs explana- 
tion ; and this book is thus complementary to my 
Cuckoo film. Moreover, the naturalist cannot be 
content merely to record observations, but instinc- 
tively seeks reasons and motives. I have no wish 
to belittle the pleasing pastime of evolving theories 
in the effort to elucidate the many problems with 
which the study of the Cuckoo is beset, and this 
perhaps the more especially since my critics will 
doubtless perceive that I am myself addicted to that 
fascinating pursuit. Nor do I wish in any way to 
pose as a dogmatic authority. But I do claim that 
Fortune has favoured me with opportunities for 
making observations w 7 hich go further than any 
yet presented, and it is largely in the hope that 
they will stimulate others to v r ork along similar 
lines that I have been encouraged to reproduce my 
experiences in their present form. 
It is my aim to confine myself as far as possible 
to facts wdiich have come under my own notice, 
and in the main to support my deductions with the 
evidence derived from them. In other v^ords, it is 
my object to give a detailed account of my actual 
experiences rather than produce a volume based, 
for the most part, upon theory and information 
