Slits 
to get the most rest in the shortest time, requiring more effort to execute the 
plan than the rest is worth, but the calm assurance that they are certainly to find 
what they wish for. No one, no matter how busy, need think that for him 
bird study is impossible, because some birds may be seen from any window. 
Attention is the only requisite. Most present day bird students began their 
study during their period of least leisure. 
This book is offered as a help in enlisting and developing your interest 
m our native birds. The author has always loved birds, and has spent many 
years in Ohio with the birds at all seasons and in many places. By education 
and training he is fitted to express here that intense love and appreciation 
which has been characteristic of his study during all of the ten years of our 
fellowship as bird lovers. The many happy days and weeks of our association 
in field work have served only to deepen my conviction that there are few per- 
sons whose sympathetic appreciation and careful training could better fit them 
for the task of revealing the birds to those who wish to know them. Study 
in Ohio for a considerable term of years, supplemented by study of the same 
and other birds in many places outside of the State has given to the author of 
this book unusual knowledge and equipment for the task. College and Theo- 
logical training also count much for accuracy of knowledge and facility of 
expression. 
The State of Presidents is also the State of varied bird life. With Lake 
Frie at one end and the Ohio River, a main tributary of the great Mississippi, 
at the other, midway between the extreme east and the middle west, Ohio is 
favorably situated for varied bird life, and for comparative ease in the study of 
that life. The once almost continuous forests are rapidly disappearing, and 
with them some of our birds, but there is a compensation in the appearance 
of many others which do not live in the forests. We are now passing through 
a transition period from the original conditions before the advent of the domi- 
nant race to the modified conditions which he has made necessary. The rising 
generation will see more changes in the birds of our state than we have or will 
see. The birds will not disappear so long as there is the keen interest shown 
in them which we see dawning to-day. Their friendship and trust are worthy 
of any effort which we may put forth. 
LYNDS JONES. 
Oberlin, Ohio. 
