Vi PREFACE. 
even to master the vocabulary of ornithology 
which would enable them to use the expensive 
Keys and Manuals for identifying birds. This, 
then, is what I have tried to do: To furnish 
hints that will enable not only young observers 
but also laymen to know the common birds they 
see about them. 
Hints, I offer; nothing more. Many birds I 
leave unmentioned, because they have never 
chanced to come before my opera-glass; and 
often my own local experiences! are given in- 
stead of generalizations, because habits vary 
greatly in different sections, as in the case of the 
catbird, who shuns all habitations in Louisiana 
while he is a familiar village gossip in the north 
and east, and I would hold to my boast of a 
“ood conscience.” I tell the truth about what 
I have seen through my own Voigtlander und 
Sohn, —a most excellent make of glass, by the 
way,-—and leave earnest observers to see and 
learn more for themselves. 
Nevertheless, it is not merely those who can go 
1 My notes were made either at Northampton, Massachusetts, 
or Locust Grove, New York. The latter place is in the Black 
River Valley, on the western border of the Adirondacks, and 
may always be understood, not only when the word “ here ”’ is 
used, but in all cases where no locality is specified. 
