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FOREWORD
Birds have an almost magical quality about them which endears them to nature lovers everywhere. They are by far the most popular group of living creatures judging by the numbers of persons who enjoy watching them. But this is not their only value. One suspects that man first looked upon birds with interest as a potential source of food and indeed they undoubtedly served in this capacity to an important degree in the early history of mankind and they still do. In time, however, an appreciation developed for their aesthetic qualities as well and this interest has also broadened and become widespread. More recently birds have received a great deal of attention by biologists and many studies of scientific value have been made in most phases of their natural history. Much yet remains to be discovered and I feel certain that investigators in the future will continue to devote much time adding to technical knowledge concerning these fascinating animals. Undoubtedly birds were of considerable interest to the men aboard the first vessels to venture along our coast more than two hundred years ago. The presence of birds often meant proximity to land and of course they must have been a very welcome addition to an otherwise exceedingly monotonous diet. But to men like Webber and Ellis both of whom had training as naturalists it must have been a tremendously exciting experience to see and sometimes to actually hold a bird entirely new to them and probably new to science. |
| For gathering together these early records and for giving us a glimpse or two of these venturesome times we are indeed indebted to Mr. Theed Pearse, the dean of British Columbia's amateur ornithologists, who has devoted many years of an unusually long life to this task. - G. Clifford Carl | |
4 pages of B&W illustrations from 1778. Maps on endpapers
Published by Theed Pearse, Comox, B.C., 1968
Condition: As new
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