INTRODUCTION xxxiii 



insects, as not only wool but hair and all other animal substances will 

 be eaten and the nests ruined if they are not well looked after. The 

 best protection for a nest is a spray of a solution of corrosive sub- 

 limate, which can be used in a common atomizer, - - with a warning- 

 red label, bearing the word ' POISON.' 



I 



NOTE-TAKING, NOTE-BOOKS, AND JOURNALS. 



The value of collections is increased mauy fold by the field-notes 

 which accompany the specimens, and the bird lover who does not 

 collect may add most valuable material to our meagre knowledge of 

 the life histories of our birds. 



A compact, statistical journal may be made, as Mr. Chapman 1 

 and Mr. Felger 2 suggest by means of a ' roll or time book,' or any 

 sheets ruled in squares in pad form and punched along the sides to 

 fasten into a cardboard cover. The squares should be used for daily 

 records, the top or top and margin being used for headings, such as 

 locality, zone, zonal plants and trees, slope exposure, temperature, 

 condition of weather, direction and force of wind, amount of rainfall 

 or snowfall, advance of vegetation, new insects abroad, indications 

 of mating and of nest-building, number of nests found with eggs 

 and with nestlings, number of young on the wing, condition of 

 plumage, stage of moult, food, food habits, stomach contents of 

 specimens taken, time spent in field, number of birds seen in flocks, 

 number seen in migration flights. 



For more detailed life history notes, card catalogues, with family, 

 generic, and specific divisions, are popular with many ornithologists. 

 A convenient form of field journal is a pad punched at the sides to 

 fit into a stiff cover, each sheet to be devoted to a species so that 

 the sheets can be slipped out and arranged by species, alphabeti- 

 cally. On the return from the field these can be dropped into box 

 manuscript trays and arranged by the check-list, 



LIFE ZONES. 



The physical geographies have long taught the division of the 

 earth into life zones, from the arctic to the tropical regions, with 

 the corresponding vertical divisions from the tropical base of equa- 

 torial mountains to their snow-clad arctic summits, and naturalists 

 have long since worked out the distribution of animals and plants 



1 Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America, pp. 20-22. 



2 " Plan for Recording Field Notes," The Auk, xix. 189-193. 



