PREFACE. 
Like Snug the joiner, in Midsummer Night’s 
Dream, I would explain to the ladies at the out- 
set that this little book is no real lion, and that 
they have nothing to fear. It is not an ornitho- 
logical treatise. It has not even the lion’s roar 
of technical terms and descriptions to warn them 
of raging dulness, but is “a very gentle beast. 
and of a good conscience.” 
It was my good fortune when in college to be 
able to study the perplexities of nearly forty 
young observers, and this book is virtually the 
result of what I learned of their wants and the 
best ways to supply them. Equipped with opera- 
glasses, we worked together in the woods and 
fields, and books were rarely consulted ; but when 
I was asked “ How are we to know the birds at 
home, where we have no one to help us?” I saw 
their need of books. But what could they use ? 
Few of those who want to know the birds have 
time or inclination to become ornithologists, or 
