XVII 
BIRDS FOR EVERYBODY 
Some birds belong exclusively to specialists. 
They are so rare, or their manner of life is so 
seclusive, that people in general can never be 
expected to know them except from books. The 
latest list of the birds of Massachusetts includes 
about three hundred and fifty species and sub- 
species. Of these, seventy-five or more are so 
foreign to this part of the country as to have ap- 
peared here only by accident, while many others 
are so excessively rare that no individual observer 
can count upon seeing them, however close a 
lookout he may keep. Other species are present 
in goodly numbers, but only in certain portions 
of the State; and still others, though generally 
distributed and fairly numerous, live habitually 
in almost impenetrable swamps or in deep forests, 
and of necessity are seen only by those who make 
it their business to look for them. 
It is something for which busy men and women 
may well be thankful, therefore, that so many of 
