2 THOMAS SADLER ROBERTS 



tinctions between such forms are so slight that it will not be pos- 

 sible for the amateur to recognize them by any means ordinarily 

 at hand. The differentiation can usually be made only by a tech- 

 nical ornithologist with the aid of selected series of specimens. A 

 careful observance of the boundaries limiting the distribution of 

 the various subspecies or forms as laid down in works on orni- 

 thology is the only means available to the beginner for determining 

 the special form that should occur in any particular locality. It 

 is advised that the bird-lover and amateur student pay no atten- 

 tion to these ultra refinements in classification, leaving them to be 

 wrestled with by those more advanced in the science of ornithology. 

 Let a Horned Lark be a Horned Lark, a Flicker a Flicker, a Great 

 Horned Owl a Great Horned Owl, and so on without confusion of 

 ideas or multiplication of terms when differences are only technical 

 subspecific ones. 



It is not within the scope of the present publication to include 

 nesting and migration dates, extended notes or means of identify- 

 ing species. Such matter, it is hoped, may be embodied at a future 

 date in a more extended work on the birds of Minnesota. Atten- 

 tion may be called to the presence of nesting and migration dates 

 for southeastern Minnesota in Chapman's Handbook of Birds of 

 Eastern North America. These were furnished by the writer of 

 this paper and are distributed through the Handbook under each 

 species reported upon. 



In answer to many inquiries as to the best book or books to 

 procure for identifying our birds, the following may be suggested 

 as well suited to the needs of the general student. For the beginner 

 and casual observer, there is perhaps nothing better than Chester 

 A. Reed's Guides to the Birds East of the Rockies. It is issued in 

 two parts Land Birds and Water Birds. They are small oblong 

 books, five and a half by three and a quarter inches in size, and 

 contain brief but satisfactory descriptions and small colored 

 illustrations of all the birds occurring in Minnesota. Their small 

 size permits of their being easily carried in the field. They sell for 

 one dollar each in flexible cloth and twenty-five cents extra in 

 flexible leather binding. For the more advanced and serious 

 studerit there is no more practical and satisfactory book than 

 Dr. Frank M. Chapman's Handbook of Birds of Eastern North 

 America. It contains an introduction of one hundred pages cover- 

 ing in popular style the general subject of ornithology in its various 

 aspects, followed by keys for identification, descriptions, ranges, 



