February 



distinctions here referred to are almost value- 

 less, as they are too minute to be recognizable 

 at the ordinary distance of observation. 



Again, they can be grouped according to 

 their habits : either as regards their habitat, 

 as land, shore, and water birds, or as aerial and 

 terrestrial ; or with a view to their differences 

 of diet, as carnivorous, insectivorous, and gra- 

 nivorous. But, while all these differences enter 

 into the computation of a bird's status, they 

 are too indefinite in themselves to afford any 

 satisfactory basis of arrangement. 



The third method, while in a sense more 

 superficial and arbitrary than either of the 

 others, is, after all, the most feasible for merely 

 cursory study, the most natural for outdoor in- 

 vestigation, and the method which any one 

 without suggestion would inevitably adopt after 

 a year's continuous experience, viz., grouping 

 them according to the season of the year when 

 they appear. However shallow this system 

 evidently is, it is none the less efficient for 

 practical purposes. This does not preclude the 

 more detailed grouping according to their evi- 

 dent resemblances of form, color, habitat, 

 habits, and temperament, by which they are 

 found to be differentiated ; and while depend- 



47 



