10 FIELD ORNITHOLOGY. 



how beautiful she is ! I would have you to know and love her ; for fairer mistress never 

 swayed the heart of man. Aim high ! — press on, and leave the half-way house of mere col- 

 lectorship far behind in your pursuit of a delightful study, nor fancy the closet its goal. 



Birds may be sought anywhere, at any time ; they should be sought everywhere, at 

 all times. Some come about your doorstep to tell their stories unasked. Others spring up 

 before you as you stroU iu the field, like the flowers tliat enticed the feet of Proserpine. Birds 

 flit by as you measure the tired roadside, lending a tithe of their life to quicken your dusty 

 steps. They disport overhead at hide-and-seek with the foliage as you loiter in the shade of 

 the forest, and their music now answers the sigh of the tree-tops, now ripples an echo to the 

 voice of the brook. But you will not always so pluck a thornless rose. Birds hedge them- 

 selves about with a bristling girdle of brier and bramble you cannot break ; they build their 

 tiny castles in the air surrounded by impassable moats, and the drawbridges are never down. 

 They crown the mountain-top you may lose your breath to climb ; they sprinkle the desert 

 where your parched lips may find no cooling draught ; they fleck the snow-wreath when the 

 nipping blast may make you turn your back ; they breathe unharmed the pestilent vapors of 

 the swamp that mean disease, if not death, for you ; they outride the storm at sea that sends 

 strong men to their last account. Where now will you look for birds ? 



And yet, as skilled labor is always most productive, so expert search yields more than 

 random or blundering pursuit. Imprimis ; The more varied the face of a country, the more 

 varied its birds. A place all plain, all marsh, aU woodland, yields its particular set of birds, 

 perhaps in profusion : but the kinds will be limited in number. It is of first importance to 

 remember this, when you are so fortunate as to have choice of a collecting-ground ; and it wiU 

 guide your steps aright in a day's walk anywhere, for it vnW make you leave covert for open, 

 wet for dry, high for low and back again. WeU-watered country is more fruitful of bird-hfe 

 than desert or even prairie ; warm regions are more productive thon cold ones. As a rule, 

 variety and abundance of birds are in direct ratio to diversity and luxuriance of vegetation. 

 Your most valuable as well as largest bags may be made in the regions most favored b(jtani- 

 cally, up to the point where exuberance of plant-growtli mechanically opposes your operations. 



Search for particular Birds can only be well directed, of course, by a knowledge of 

 their special haunts and habits, and is one of the mysteries of wood-craft only solved by long 

 experience and close observation. Here is where the true naturalist bears himself with con- 

 scious pride and strength, winning laurels that become him, and do honor to his calling. 

 Where to find game ("game" is anything that vulgar people do not ridicule you for shooting) 

 of all the kinds we have in this country has been so often and so minutely detailed in sporting- 

 works that it need not be here enlarged upon, especially since, being the best known, it is the 

 least valuable of ornithological material. Most large or otherwise conspicuous birds have very 

 special haunts that may be soon learned ; and as a rule such rank next after game in ornitho- 

 logical disesteem. Birds of prey are an exception to these statements; they range everywhere, 

 and most of them are worth securing. Hawks will unwittingly fly in your way oftener than 

 they will allow you to approach them when perched : be ready for them. Owls wall be 

 startled out of their retreats in thick bushes, dense foliage, and hollow trees, in the daytime ; 

 if hunting them at night, good aim in the dark may be taken by rubbing a wet lucifer match 

 on the sight of the gun, causing a momentary glimmer. Large and small waders are to be 

 found by any water's edge, in open marshes, and often on dry plains ; the herons more particu- 

 larly in heavy bogs and dense swamps. Under cover, waders are oftenest approached by 

 stealth ; in the open, by strategy; but most of the smaller kinds require the exercise of no special 

 precautions. Swimming birds, aside from water-fowl (as the "game" kinds are called), are gen- 

 erally shot from a boat, as they fly past ; but at their breeding places many kinds that congre- 



