A LESSON IN BIRD STUDY. 25 



you will often see a bird at a distance which looks 

 like a new specimen, but by fixing your glass upon 

 it you will perhaps find tliat it is an old acquaint- 

 ance, and thus you will be saved many a useless 

 step. 



Of course, your outfit would not be complete 

 without a good bird-manual — that is, a book 

 which gives brief but accurate descriptions of all 

 the birds in your neighborhood. The first treatise 

 of the kind I ever tried to use was Stearns' " New 

 England Bird Life " ; in many respects an, excellent 

 work; but as I had never lived in New England, 

 I did not find it wholly satisfactory. In some way, 

 I cannot now remember how, I learned of Dr. 

 J. M. Wheaton's " Report on the Birds of Ohio," 

 which I bought in paper covers for one dollar and 

 then had bound in leather for the same amount, 

 and now I seldom take a stroll to pursue my favor- 

 ite study, without putting this volume into my 

 book-bag, which is flung over my shoulder. When- 

 ever I espy a bird that I do not know, I get all his 

 markings by ogling him with my glass, and then 

 look up the description of him in my manual. At 

 first you will become sadly confused in trying to 

 use a key, because there are so many birds de- 

 scribed which you have never seen nor even heard 



