Our Common Birds and How to Know Them 
But be patient. Do not expect to learn immediately all there is to be known. And 
do not try to identify too many kinds of birds at the commencement of your career. 
Choose for your earlier studies those that are at the same time abundant and that are 
striking in plumage or song, or both ; confining yourself to male birds, that is to say, 
to precisely those which alone as a rule possess these well-marked characteristics. For 
if you puzzle over each bird you see, and with all your pains fail to become satisfied 
as to its identity, you must be a person of uncommon perseverance, if you do not soon 
grow disheartened. 
You now probably know the Robin and the Crow. Who does not? Well, begin 
with these. Study them. They alone, if really studied, are capable of affording much 
entertainment. As for the Robin you need not leave the precincts of your own garden 
to find him. But there are other birds probably not known to you, and yet always 
present in great numbers, which you may immediately add to your list for present study ; 
confident that after reading about them in the books you will recognize them on sight ; 
or even should you chance to meet them without preparation that you will be able to 
identify them by subsequent reference to the books. They are the Red-winged Black- 
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