2 Bird Studies. 



with any other locaHty Others are in the same way characteristic of the 

 woodland, the field and meadow, brook, marsh and swamp. 



Our first problem will deal with those associated with the country house 

 and its immediate vicinity. Thence we shall go by the highway to the woods 

 and fields near by ; and finally, we shall pass through the meadows, to the 

 brooks and ponds with their marshy and swampy surroundings. There will 

 be in each region thrushes, sparrows, warblers, wrens, and vireos, that are 

 characteristic of that part of the journey. After each bird has become so 

 familiar as to be known under all circumstances, an almost endless chain of 

 research is opened, for the best known of our birds, even the Robin and 

 humble Chipping Sparrow, will suggest many questions that have not been 

 fully answered. What is their food, their period of incubation, the rapidity 

 of their development, — in short, their life economy ? 



By word and picture the birds are portrayed. Two factors that are not 

 very tangible, one song and the other color, will have to be acquired by ob- 

 servation and experience. It is easy to say that a bird is red, and that it has 

 a charming song, but the exact tone and quality of the red has defied the 

 brush of the painter, and no instrument made by man has yet rendered the 

 music of the song. Form, however, is obvious, and the pattern of coloration 

 can be shown. The shape of birds' bills and feet, w^ngs and tail, together 

 with their most salient markings, can be pictured with accuracy and described 

 with certainty. This also is true in regard to birds' nests, the material of 

 which they are constructed, and their contents, whether eggs or young. 



Under the author's personal direction, Mr. A. R. Dugmore, with artistic 

 perception and skill, has made the original photographs, which are carefully 

 reproduced for this work. Some are taken from live birds, others from dead 

 ones, some are from stuffed birds, others from prepared skins. All are faith- 

 ful and accurate pictures, just what the camera presents, with its keen inter- 

 pretation. 



All of the live birds photographed for this book, and the greater num- 

 ber of the stuffed and mounted specimens, belong to the private collection of 

 the author. 



The birds' nests have been photographed in the places where they were 

 found, and were in no way disturbed. So far as known, the parent birds of 

 these nests had in no case abandoned them. Young birds were frequently 

 photographed, some days after the nest and eggs had been utilized in a 

 similar way. 



In preparing the text, the author has made use of original notes based 



