How to Study Birds 



195 



nities to add to our knowledj^e of birds' habits during this most important 

 part of their lives are lost simply because the persons to whom the opportu- 

 nities come do not know what is known or what is unknown, what he 

 should try to see or the significance of things seen. 



The day has passed when general observations on the habits of our 

 birds are likely to prove of value. Nor can the student hope to dis- 

 cover much that is new unless, after learning what we especially desire 

 to know, he devotes himself systematically to the study of comparatively 

 few birds; selecting, preferably, the most common species in his vicinity. 



What Bird is This ? 



hielJ,Deierifiion. "Lfiieth, ft. 15 in. Brownish i;ra>. Iltlitcr hrloiv, mnn- »t less slrrakcd with whitish; in life a 

 whitish linc'over thcjcyc is more or less evident. "^ 



NoTK. -Each luirnber of Bird-Luke will contain a photof^raph, troni spccinicns in 

 the American Museum of Natural History, of some comparatively little-known hird, or 

 bird in obscure plumaj,'e, the name of which will be withheld until the succeeding 

 number of the maf^a/ine, it beinj; believed that this metiiod of arousinj; the student's 

 curiosity will result in impressinj^ the bird's characters on his mind far more strongly 

 than if its name were jjiven with the picture. 



The species fif^iired in October is Lincoln's Kinch. 



