Chapter I 



SUGGESTIONS 



IT goes without saying anywhere, but 

 especialty here, after what has been 

 set down in the preceding pages, 

 that the only real way to get acquainted 

 with birds is on the spot. Book knowledge 

 of them alone is as much unlike the knowl- 

 edge you obtain directly, in field and wood, 

 by brook and hedge, as the ideas of baseball 

 a girl gathers from reading of it differ from 

 those of the boy who plays the game. 



Books on birds may be both interesting 

 and instructive; and also indispensable as 

 a help and a guide. But to find a bird for 

 yourself, in the early morning or at sunset, 

 and see for the first time the beauty of his 

 plumage close at hand, and hear and learn 

 his calls and his music, and be puzzled for 

 a bit, and run over your mental memo- 

 randa, referring to such colored plates as 



[15] 



