CHAPTER II. 



THE STUDY OF BIRDS OUT-OF-DOORS. 



How to Identify Birds. — Whether your object be to study birds as 

 a scientist or simply as a lover of Nature, the first step is the same — 

 you must learn to know them. This problem of identification has 

 been given up in despair by many would-be ornithologists. We can 

 neither pick, press, net, nor impale birds; and here the botanist and 

 the entomologist have a distinct advantage. Even if we have the 

 desire to resort to a gun its use is not always possible. But with 

 patience and practice the identification of birds is a comparatively 

 easy matter, and in the end you will name them with surprising ease 

 and certainty. There is generally more character in the flight of a 

 bird than there is in the gait of a man. Both are frequently inde- 

 scribable but perfectly diagnostic, and you learn to recognize bird 

 friends as you do human ones — by experience. 



If you confine your studies to one locality, probably not more than 

 one third of the species described in this volume will come within the 

 field of your observation. To aid you in learning which species should 

 be included in this third, the paragraphs on Range are followed by 

 a statement of the bird's standing at Washington, D. C, Sing Sing, 

 N. Y., and Cambridge, Mass., while the water-birds of Long Island are 

 treated specially. Take the list of birds from the point nearest your 

 home as an index of those you may expect to find. This may be 

 abridged for a given season by considering the times of the year at 

 which a bird is present.* 



* It is sometimes possible to secure a list of birds of your own vicinity. These 

 " local lists '^ are generally published in scientific journals, but one may fre- 

 quently secure a copy of the author's edition. On this subject correspond with 

 L. S. Foster, 35 Pine Street, New York city. Among the local lists of eastern 

 birds which were issued as separate publications and are now for sale are— 



1. A Catalogue of the Birds of the Virginias, by Wm. C. Rives, M. A., M. D. 

 Proc. Newport [R. I.] Nat. Hist. Soc, Document VII, 1890, 8vo, pp. 100, one map, 

 305 species. 



2. The Birds of Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with Introductory 



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