INTRODUCTION 



Some persons go through life surrounded by na- 

 ture's rarest gems without taking any interest or ob- 

 serving them. A tree is a tree, a bird a ''sparrer," a 

 rock is a rock ! 



One of my acquaintances was curious to know what 

 I got out of my bird experiences that he had not also 

 received. As an illustration, I said to him: 



''You do not know that a Blue Jay belongs to the 

 Crow family. ' ' 



He replied: ''No, I don't, and I don't give a damn." 



There is quite a gap between this friend and another, 

 who is a scientific ornithologist and who told me when 

 I appealed to him to classify a Savanna Sparrow, as to 

 whether it was just a common Savanna or the Western 

 subspecies, that it would be utterly impossible, unless 

 he had before him for examination a hundred specimens 

 collected from a given locality. 



Poor Western Savanna! It were better to remain 

 in unclassified obscurity than to become exterminated 

 by "scientific classification" methods. 



Reed, one of our very best and most learned ornithol- 

 ogists, says: "To identify the various subspecies of the 

 Red-winged Blackbird would require micrometer calipers 

 and the services of the man who separated them." 



"Many subspecies are recognized only by the expert 

 with the specimens in hand and imder favorable light 

 conditions," says another. 



Between my Blue Jay friend and these scientists 

 there is a vast chasm, and somewhere within that gap I 

 am content to remain. The technical field has been thor- 

 oughly covered. What the general bird-lover enjoys most 

 is a true picture of birds, and an account of their daily 

 doings afield and at home. 



It is not necessary to know that water is composed 

 of two parts of hydrogen and one of oxygen, in order to 

 enjoy to the fullest the grandeur of a Niagara or of a 

 Yellowstone waterfall; neither is it essential for one 

 exploring an untraveled mountain range to be a learned 



