20 A GUIDE TO THE BIRDS 



preparation. The reading of books like those of Bolles, 

 Burroughs, and Torrey is a great aid, as well as a pleasant 

 stimulus. 



Opera-glasses are almost indispensable. The best for bird 

 study magnify about three and a half times ; in other words, 

 the bird is brought that much nearer to you. The Zeiss 

 glasses magnify many more times, but the field is much 

 smaller, and the bird harder to find. For sea-birds which 

 are riding the water in one place, a powerful marine-glass or 

 even a small telescope is useful. 



Note-books are indispensable, and it is often well to carry 

 a handbook into the field, so that a bird can be looked up 

 on the spot, and some important point settled, if possible, 

 by examining the bird again and again. 



It soon becomes evident to a student that birds are much 

 more plentiful in some spots than others. Often one can 

 learn from others where the best places are ; if not, one 

 should try the edges of broad valleys, or the borders of 

 streams where bushes, swamp, and pasture alternate. As a 

 rule, the more diversified the country, the more birds there 

 will be. In winter, warm sheltered hollows are attractive. 

 In migration time it is particularly important to find favor- 

 able places. 



When a student gets far enough to get the nesting fever, 

 he has an endless and intense pleasure before him. The nest- 

 ing season treads fast on the heels of the spring migration ; 

 many birds, in fact, have built before the May migrants come. 

 To find nests it is necessary to have found them ; that is to say, 

 after one has been found, it is much easier to find the second, 

 for one knows then where to look. One must, moreover, be 

 constantly on the alert for the slight hints which are often so 

 important. A bird going to and from its nest slips along in 

 a very different fashion from its ordinary careless wandering. 

 A straw or bit of hair in a bird's mouth is a broad hint ; sit 

 down at once, and try to beat the bird at a waiting game. 



