INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. 



untrained eye becomes gradually accustomed to its new 

 vocation before it is overtaxed. The matter of eyesight is 

 of the first importance in the study of the living bird. Is 

 your sight sufficiently good to allow you to exercise it in this 

 way ? The birds that you study will not be in the hand, 

 but in the bush. 



You may be accustomed to an out-door life, you may 

 comprehend at a glance all the details of a landscape, or 

 be able to detect a particular flower fields away; but in 

 the quest of a bird which is oftentimes on the wing, your 

 eyes will be obliged to distinguish certain details in a mov- 

 ing object backgrounded by a dazzling sky, and at the next 

 moment refocus, to discover a bird, with perhaps very dull 

 plumage, who is eluding you by circling in the black shadows 

 of the pines. Thus you will be either peering into dim 

 recesses or facing the strongest light twenty times to a single 

 chance of seeing a bird in a clear light, with his plumage 

 accentuated by a suitable background. If you squint and 

 cannot face the sun, you must study birds in the museums, 

 or learn to know them by their songs alone; a field-glass 

 will lengthen the sight, but it will not give the ability to 

 endure light. 



Many people think that a bird wears the same plumage 

 and sings the same songs all the year round, and expect to 

 identify it by some easy and inflexible rule, which shall 

 apply to all seasons and circumstances, but this is im- 

 possible. 



When the birds come to us in spring they wear their 

 perfect and typical plumage and are in the best voice, as 

 befits those who are going courting. The male wears the 

 most showy, or at least the most distinctly marked coat, and 

 is generally slightly larger than the female, except in the 

 case of Owls and a few others, where the female is the 

 larger. In many families there is very little variation 

 between the colouring of the male and female, and at a short 

 distance you would probably notice none, except that the 

 female is the paler of the two. But sometimes the differ- 

 ence is so marked that the novice invariably mistakes the 



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