Bird Records 



Bird records are kept by hundreds of people. They may serve 

 only to satisfy the desire of the observer to keep a record, regard- 

 less of its value, or they may be made with the definite purpose 

 of furnishing data from which to determine more accurately 

 than we now know, the migratory movements of our birds. 



The former motive is praiseworthy, since it stimulates observa- 

 tion, and, consequently leads to growth on the part of the observer; 

 the latter is more praiseworthy since it adds to the sum of human 

 knowledge. 



The records commonly made consist of casual, or chance 

 observation, on the date of arrival of the species known to the 

 observer. He chances to-day to see a robin and notes religioulsy 

 the date, and compares it with that of its arrival the year before. 

 To-morrow he sees a grackle and records and compares. As the 

 season advances, his enthusiasm wanes and by the time the leaves 

 are out, and observations become difficult, his interest has ex- 

 pended itself and he lays away his record book. The late arrivals 

 are missed entirely and the fall migration is as if it were not. 

 However, we are not belittling such records. They are commend- 

 able in the same principle that one must walk before he can run. 

 One must learn the birds one by one, and this is frequently a 

 laborious process; or, at any rate, it ought to be if carefully done. 

 Its means constant attention to details, critical comparison, and 

 these mental operations require effort, pleasurable though they 

 may be. 



And here let emphasis be laid upon the necessity for close 

 observation. The enthusiast, without contemplating its conse- 

 quences on himself and others, too frequently, after momentary 

 observation of a bird not known to him, begins to turn the leaves 

 of his key, studying first this and then another description, wavers 

 between two or more possibilities, becomes, by suggestion, pre- 

 judiced toward one or the other, and finally concludes that the 

 bird seen must have been of a species thus and so. Thereupon 

 his record receives another addition — and, in this manner, grows 

 apace. Oppose to this attitude and method that of the observer 

 who witholds his judgment until observation, repeated if necessary 

 many times, confirms beyond peradventure, his identification 

 of an unknown bird. His records grow more slowly, it is true, 



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