PREFACE ix 
sion. Some hold Apteryz lawryi to be a true species, 
whilst much confusion exists among the Black, Hill, 
North and South Island Woodhens. The question 
is, are they distinct species or merely varieties? It 
is hoped that these difficulties will be solved in the 
near future, but until this is done, why force classi- 
fication on those who love birds without desiring 
to become scientific ornithologists. To do so would 
be unwise, as it would lead those who. have neither 
time nor inclination for scientific study to suppose 
that a considerable amount of drudgery must be 
undergone before any intelligent interest can be 
taken in birds. It is the very purpose of this book 
to obviate such drudgery, by basing the identification 
tables on features that appeal to the eye alone and 
that can be recognised without handling birds. To 
some few people it is given to be interested in 
classification for its own sake. These will find more 
pleasure and profit in classifying birds after they 
have named them than in using scientific methods 
as a means of naming them. 
The most laborious, least efficient, and most 
discouraging method of mastering a language is that 
which is based upon a study of its grammar. The 
pleasantest and quickest way is to learn it by 
natural intercourse, and so it is when studying birds. 
You may retire with a dead bird to your room and 
laboriously learn the irregular verbs of ornithology, 
or you may betake yourself to the bush and get to 
know the birds themselves. Mark Twain must have 
had the former procedure in his mind when he 
defined an ornithologist as a man who, on seeing 
a bird sitting in a tree, got his gun and shot it. 
The patient work done by ornithologists in classi- 
fication is, of course, absolutely necessary, but until 
the average man has learned the names of the 
common birds, he is like a child aspiring to read 
poetry before learning the A.B.C. Once he has 
mastered the names and characteristics of the New 
