A First Glance at the Birds. 



occurring along our coast and Heer- 

 mann's in the interior. Even a trained 

 specialist cannot always distinguish them, 

 however. 



In attempting, in the brief limits of 

 a single essay, to give you even the most 

 general conception of our California 

 birds I have undertaken an impossible 

 task. The wheels of the machinery of 

 a classification, necessarily inadequate 

 and arbitrary in many respects, creak 

 somewhat despite their lubrication. 

 The anatomist and the systematist are 

 ever lurking in the background, and the 

 odor of bird skins and preservatives has 

 not been wholly eliminated, but before we 

 part I beg you to have a glance with me 

 at my friends in their native haunts, 

 unmindful of their place in the scheme 

 of the check-list. 



We are in the redwoods upon a warm 

 day in midsummer. The little moun- 

 tain stream is tumbling over its gray 

 rocks with a ceaseless rippling sound. 

 The tall trees loom up all about us, and 

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