THE APPEAL OF THE SPORT 



are more luscious than marsh mallows, those field' 

 produce harvests of rarities. I am eager to start forth 

 and ramble on, to seize and conquer this rich province 

 with mind and eye, to make it mine. Nothing do I 

 care to own it, as other men do, and pay taxes, if they 

 will but tolerate my roamings, letting me visit, watch, 

 study, photograph its glorious wild citizens. Really I 

 pity the person who cannot enjoy the country, who has 

 so few resources of mind as to need to be amused by 

 the passing throng, who must forever get, in order to be 

 happy, and has little or nothing to give. 



I w^ant to start out many healthy boys, girls and 

 youth on this enticing combination of sport and study 

 to enlarge their lives, and make them happier and more 

 contented with their lot in life. So I shall try, with the 

 help of my lively young enthusiast and companion, to 

 show that ornithology, or bird study, can be made a 

 live thing, a sport, a fine pursuit for any active person, 

 as it has surely proved to be for a growing boy like Ned. 

 Sometimes, to inspire and educate him, I take him off 

 with me to some wild and distant region, to camp out 

 and rough it, and develop his manliness and self- 

 reliance. I shall proceed to tell what he and I, or I 

 alone, find in quest of birds in an ordinary inland 

 country town, not a remarkable one, but an average 

 one, any country town, indeed, in the Eastern or Middle 

 United States, just such a town, very likely, as the one 

 in which you, Reader, dwell, or spend your vacation. 

 I shall try to tell, in the main, what birds you will be 



10 



