IT HAS been said, probably with truth, that the percentage of people in this country who are interested in birds is greater than in any other country in the world. The number of such people is growing, and will I feel sure, be augmented by many
Service men and women who, after being in the main town dwellers, have by reason of their service in the Forces lived for many months and years iii wild and lonely places.
Not only does interest in birds cover all classes of society and shades of opinion, but different people watch birds in different ways, and to different degrees of intensity.
Thus bird-watchers may range from the person who can name but half a dozen of the common species of birds, and yet can appreciate their high aesthetic appeal, to the trained biologist, whose critical interest is that of the research worker seeking to gain, from the way birds live, some idea of their place in the natural order.
Between these two extremes there has been fixed in the past a wide gulf, and a measure of contempt often exists in the scientist for the so-called " bird-lover " who has the anthropomorphic outlook, whilst the bird-lover in his turn regards the scientist as a dust-dry man whose very training and attitude prevent him from appreciating any of the aesthetic appeal that birds may have.
Actually, there can be few field-ornithologists, however rigid their scientific attitude, who have not at sometime or other fallen completely under the spell of birds as gloriously free creatures, beautiful of form and often of voice, and this spell can be intensified rather than weakened by a correct and scientific attitude to bird behavior.
By studying the habits of birds and interpreting their actions dispassionately on broad scientific principles, we can arrive at a better understanding of their minds and emotions, and their place in the green world in which they live. Then, truly to know them is to love them.
One phase of bird-watching which has tended to limit its usefulness and interest in the past, has been the cult of the rare bird.
This cult has been ail-too popular, so that often the main aim of the average bird-watcher has been the recording of rarities in the field which, while it has its limited uses from a distributional point of view, usually
