FIELD ORNITHOLOGY 



pleasant that I did not know before. I should consider a bird new 

 to science ample reward for a month's steady work ; one bird new 

 to a locality would repay a week's search ; a day is happily spent that 

 shows me any bird that I never saw alive before. How then can you, 

 with so much before you, keep out of the woods another minute % 



All Times are good times to go a -shooting ; but some 

 are better than others. {a) Time of year. In all temperate 

 latitudes, spring and fall — periods of migration with most birds — 

 are the most profitable seasons for collecting. Not only are birds 

 then most numerous, both as species and as individuals, and most 

 active, so as to be the more readily found, but they include a far 

 larger proportion of rare and valuable kinds. In every locality in 

 this country the periodical visitants outnumber the permanent 

 residents ; in most regions the number of regular migrants, that 

 simply pass through in the spring and fall, equals or exceeds that 

 of either of the sets of species that come from the south in spring 

 to breed during the summer, or from the north to spend the winter. 

 Far north, of course, on or near the limit of the vernal migration, 

 where there are few if any migrants, and where the winter birds 

 are extremely few, nearly all the biixl-fauna is composed of " summer 

 visitants " ; far south the reverse is somewhat the case, though with 

 many qualifications. Between these extremes, what is conventionally 

 known as " a season " means the period of the vernal or autumnal 

 migration. Look out, then, for " the season," and work all through 

 it at a rate you could not possibly sustain the year around. (h) 

 Time of clay. Early in the morning and late in the afternoon are 

 the best times for birds. There is a mysterious something in these 

 diurnal crises that sets bird-life astir, over and above what is explain- 

 able by the simple fact that they are the transition periods from 

 repose to activity, or the reverse. Subtle meteorological changes 

 occur ; various delicate instruments used in physicists' researches 

 are sometimes inexplicably disturbed ; diseases have often their 

 turning point for better or worse ; people are apt to be born or 

 die ; and the susceptible organisms of birds manifest various excite- 

 ments. Whatever the operative influence, the fact is, birds are 

 particularly lively at such hours. In the dark they rest — most of 

 them do ; at noonday, again, they are comparatively still ; between 

 these times they are passing to or from their feeding grounds or 

 roosting places ; they are foraging for food, they are singing ; at 

 any rate, they are in motion. Many migratory birds (among them 

 warblers, etc.) perform their journeys by night; just at daybreak 

 they may be seen to descend from the upper regions, rest a Avhile, 

 and then move about briskly, singing and searching for food. Their 

 meal taken, they recuperate by resting till towards evening ; feed 

 again and are off for the night. If you have had some experience, 



