1 2 INTRODUCTION. 



been too much collecting by far, that has yielded 

 nothing worth the knowing. It is not justifiable to 

 kill a hundred warblers in a day just to see if a 

 particular one was among them. There is nothing 

 to be gained in determining that there are possible 

 hybrids or, it may be, an overlooked good species 

 found in a given area. Let what we do not know go 

 unknown until discovered by accident, and let the 

 birds live. Remember that it is true of every one of 



them, that 



He who sings and flies away 

 Lives to sing another day. 



When we take up the subject of birds and their 

 place in Nature, we are brought face to face with that 

 very technical, dry-as-dust matter, their classification. 

 It is necessary to be methodical in considering them, 

 and particularly so when we are concerned with 

 groups rather than individuals ; but whether we 

 begin with a little brown diver and wind up with a 

 thrush or vice versa does not matter so much. A 

 glance merely at technical ornithology is sufficient to 

 show that the biologists who have closely studied 

 birds are not quite of one mind as to the positions 

 the various groups should have in the class AVES. 

 Considering zoology as a whole, the most logical 

 plan is to commence at the bottom, or lowest form, 

 and proceed to the top, or highest form ; and these, 

 in North America, are represented by the diver and 

 the thrush ; but for personal convenience, and because 

 the thrush is more widely known than the diver, we 

 will reverse the plan, and starting with the birds that 

 are the climax of avian development, glide leisure'y 



