PREFACE 7 



thousand. Fortunately there were at least half a dozen active 

 members of the Linnaean Society, who were not only compe- 

 tent to draw up local lists from their own and other's notes, 

 but they most generously and helpfully did so. Were it not 

 for their assistance the writer would still be floundering 

 through a mass of statistics. As a matter of form their 

 summaries have been checked in every case, but it is a 

 pleasure to point out the relative simplicity of this task, (d) 

 The writer's own observations commenced in 1896, when he 

 was a small boy. Since 1907 he has been incessantly afield 

 whenever residing in New York City, and has returned from 

 many parts of this country and many foreign countries to 

 local problems with unabated enthusiasm and interest. Dur- 

 ing this period over ] 250 field trips have taken him to every 

 section of the area covered by this Handbook, except northern 

 Westchester County. It includes daily observation of twelve 

 spring migrations, daily observation of two fall migrations, 

 and daily observation of parts of eight others. Since 1909 

 he has been compiling all the available information. 



The object of this Handbook is to render the existing 

 information about local birds readily accessible. Its subtitle 

 might well be: "Our Local Birds, when and where to find 

 them," as these are the first questions anyone interested wants 

 to have answered. The next question, how to recognize and 

 identify the different species of local birds, is outside the 

 province of this book. Limitations of space alone would 

 prevent the inclusion of subject matter, which is fully 

 treated in many inexpensive text-books, obtainable in any 

 book store. A list of those recommended will be found in the 

 bibliography. Bearing in mind, however, the fact that the 

 majority of bird-lovers now happily use the glass instead of 

 the gun, the problem of identifying birds in life has largely 

 replaced the problem of how to get near enough to kill them. 

 Consequently I have given the characters which I have found 

 useful in recognizing many species of birds difficult to 



