26 A LESSON IN BIRD STUDY. 



of ; but by and by, if you are patient, you will be 

 able to '^ bring order out of chaos," and will find 

 it quite easy to identify new species. 



It would be well to write to some one who is 

 likely to know about such things, inquiring if 

 there is a work published on the birds of your 

 State. If there is none, I would recommend 

 Coues' " Key to North American Birds " [latest 

 edition]. The only objection to it is that it is 

 almost too large and heavy to carry with you in 

 your rambles; but it is the best work with which 

 I am acquainted for the beginner. It gives plain 

 and accurate descriptions of all the birds of North 

 America, and contains cuts of many of them, which 

 will often enable you to recognize a new specimen 

 at sight. 



In the papers that follow you will find that I 

 have made frequent reference to Robert Ridgway's 

 " Manual of North American Birds ; " a work that 

 I use constantly and that is thoroughly reliable. 

 However, for the beginner it is not so good. The 

 plates are practically useless for purposes of identi- 

 fication, although quite valuable for those inter- 

 ested in the anatomy of birds. Then, the method 

 of classification, or rather the arrangement of the 

 various orders, families, genera, and species, is so 



