26 SUGGESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FIELD-WORK. 



readily undertake to secure a greater variety of birds in the nine 

 weeks above specified than in all the rest of the year ; for in that 

 time would be found, not only all the permanent residents, but 

 nearly all the migrants, and almost all the summer visitants ; 

 while the number of individual birds that might be taken ex- 

 ceeds, by quite as much, the number of those procurable in the 

 same length of time at any other season. Mutatis mutandis, 

 it is the same everywhere in this country. Look out then, for 

 " the season ;" work all through it at a rate you could not pos- 

 sibly sustain the year around ; and make hay while the sun 

 shines, b. Time of day. Early in the morning and late in 

 the afternoon are the best times for birds. There is a mysteri- 

 ous something in these diurnal crises that sets bird-life astir, 

 over and above what is explainable by the simple fact that they 

 are the transition periods from repose to activity, or the reverse. 

 Subtile meteorological changes occur ; various delicate instru- 

 ments used in physicists' researches are sometimes inexplicably 

 disturbed ; diseases have often their turning point for better 

 or worse ; people are apt to be born or die ; and the suscep- 

 tible organisms of birds manifest various excitements. What- 

 ever the operative influence, the fact is, birds are particularly 

 lively at such hours. In the dark, they rest most of them 

 do : at noonday, again, they are comparatively still ; between 

 these times they are passing to or from their feeding grounds 

 or roosting places ; they are foraging for food, they are singing ; 

 at any rate, they are in motion. Many migratory birds (among 

 them warblers, etc.) perform their journeys by night ; just at 

 daybreak they may be seen to descend from the upper regions, 

 rest awhile, and then move about briskly, singing and search- 

 ing for food. Their meal taken, they recuperate by resting till 

 towards evening : feed again and are off for the night. If you 

 have had some experience, don't you remember what a fine spurt 

 you made early that morning? how many unexpected shots 

 offered as you trudged home belated that evening ? Now I am 

 no fowl, and have no desire to adopt the habits of the hen-yard ; 

 I have my opinion of those who like the world before it is 

 aired ; I think it served the worm right for getting up, when 



