A WINGED CHUM 169 



good deal so every one can know the bird by the 

 same name, and any study of it can be done in a 

 proper way. Then the name describes the bird 

 and tells what its relations are. It shows, too, 

 where a bird is different from the rest. So far as 

 I can make out, the names of birds are like tools for 

 a chap who wants to work on them and I Ve got to 

 know my tools. I'm trying to learn them, now, 

 but it's a hard job. You see there are seventeen 

 Orders and sixty-six Families in the Birds of 

 Eastern North America." 

 *'Do yo' remember any o' them now?" 

 ''I'll try," said Shan. ''First of all there are 

 two groups. Water Birds and Land Birds, with 

 nine Orders in the first group and eight in the 

 other. It begins with the Order of Diving Birds, 

 with three families, the Grebes, the Loons and the 

 Puffins. Next come the Long-Winged Swimmers, 

 with three families, the Jaegers, the Gulls and the 

 Skimmers. The Tube-nosed Swimmers have only 

 two families, the Albatrosses and the Petrels. 

 The Four-Webbed-Toed Swimmers have six fam- 

 ilies. Tropic-birds, Gannets, Darters, Cormorants, 

 Pelicans and Man-o'-War birds. The Three- 

 Webbed-Toed Swimmers have only one family 

 which includes Ducks, Geese and Swans. The 



