FOREWORD 
HILE not a scientific treatise, in the sense 
» ^ of being technical, this book claims to be as 
accurate as careful observation in the field, with 
and without a glass, can make it. It has been 
written from my own notes gleaned during several 
years of study of the nesting habits of our familiar 
birds, and some not quite so well known. In the 
case of the red-winged blackbird the double nest 
was made by another pair of birds in a different 
marsh, and was shown to me. It contained one 
egg in the lower part, exactly as described. With 
this one exception, I have chosen to relate only 
those incidents which have come under my per- 
sonal observation, knowing well that nothing is 
recorded which any one with the same amount of 
patience, leisure, and love of the subject might not 
have seen for himself. The individuality of these 
“ Little Brothers of the Air ” has not, in any case, 
been exaggerated ; for birds of the same species 
differ in habits and song as much as do individuals 
of the human kind, and to know them is an endless 
study. So far as reading human characteristics 
into animal life is concerned, can any one tell where 
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