THE APPEAL OF THE SPORT 



likely to find in such a town, how we found them, and 

 what fun we had in doing so. You had better have a 

 complete text-book with descriptions of birds and keys 

 to identify them, such as Chapman's, or Hoffmann's 

 Handbook, and also a field or opera glass, the more 

 powerful the better. Later you can buy a camera, if 

 the sport appeals to you. 



Most of the birds here told about are found also in 

 other parts of the country and in Canada, and the 

 general idea of the book will apply as well there, for 

 the sport of bird study is not limited to any narrow 

 boundaries. 



It is a good idea for all who study birds to know 

 something of their classification, the principal groups 

 and families into which bird species are divided. There 

 are not so very many of these, and they are very distinct 

 one from another, and one can easily carry the whole 

 scheme in mind. In coming upon an unfamiliar 

 specimen, it is pleasant to be able, from its general 

 appearance or habits, to recognize at once to what 

 family it belongs. All there is to do, then, is to take 

 the Handbook and find which of several species it is. 

 Most of them, indeed, one will probably know already 

 the thrushes, warblers, swallows, finches, woodpeckers, 

 hawks, grouse, gulls, and so on. In the chapters fol- 

 lowing I tell about the different groups of birds in their 

 order of classification, except that the swimming and 

 wading birds are transferred, for convenience, from 

 first to last. It will be a good idea to learn the scheme 



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