Preface<br >When Collins asked me ifI would write a bird book for their Australian<br >Naturalist Library I accepted for three reasons. Firstly， during the last<br >twenty-five years detailed studies on a number of Australian birds have<br >been completed， but some of these have been published in journals that<br >many people never get the chance to see and I felt that there was a need<br >to summarize these works and to present a complete bibliography for<br >reference. Secondly， it seemed appropriate that this book should be<br >published at a time when world attention was focused on develop-<br >ments in ornithology in Australia following the holding of the i6th<br >International Ornithological Congress at Canberra in I974. And，<br >finally， I have for many y~ears enjoyed Collins New Naturalist Library<br >series， on which the Australian series is to be modelled. I have especially<br >appreciated its blend of scientific fact with a minimum of technical<br >jargon.<br > Although our crows do not fly backwards to keep the dust out of<br >their eyes， there are many aspects of Australian ornithology that are<br >unique. I hope that visitors， as well as Australians interested in wildlife，<br >will find this a useful and painless introduction to some of our birds.<br > This is a book about the different ways that birds live on this island<br >continent， Australia. It is therefore concerned with ornithology， the<br >study of birds and with ecology， the study of populations in relation to<br > their environment. The word ecology provides a good example of the<br > speed with which our ideas change. Ten years ago ifI was asked what<br > I did for a living and replied that I was an ecologist， people looked<br > blankly at me. The other day I encountered two ten-year-olds tres-<br > passing harmlessly on the granite outcrop at the end of our garden;<br > in conversation one of them commented the developers are so chang-<br > ing the environment that there isn t any room for us kids to play<br > anymore . I retired somewhat abashed for I was， indeed， one of the<br > developers referred to， having just built our home on what had been<br > his playground， and for days I kept coming back to that conversation<br >41L<br ><br >