Introduction 



A great crusade against bird slaughter is sweeping over the 

 country. Thousands of progressive educators have inaugurated 

 courses of nature study in the schools, which include object 

 lessons in bird life. Bird protective associations are being formed 

 everywhere. The League of American Sportsmen is doing a 

 noble work in this direction. It is waging a relentless war on 

 men who kill game birds out of the legal season, or song birds 

 at any time. This organization stands for the highest type of 

 men who hunt, and it is laboring to educate the other kind up to 

 its standard. The surest way to promote this sentiment of bird 

 protection is to induce our people to study the birds. Nearly 

 every man, woman, and child who becomes intimately acquainted 

 with them learns to love and to respect them for their incalculable 

 benefits to mankind. The reading of such a book as this is a step 

 in the right direction. The next step should lead the reader into 

 the fields, the woods, and by the waters. 



I have read the manuscript of this book carefully. It shows 

 the most patient and industrious research, and it is safe to say no 

 work of its class has been issued in modern times that contains 

 so much valuable information, presented with such felicity and 

 charm. The author avoids technicalities, and writes for the lay- 

 man as well as for the naturalist. While the volume caters in a 

 great measure to sportsmen, yet it is the hope of the author and 

 the editor that they may learn to hunt more and more each year 

 without guns ; for all true sportsmen are lovers of nature. The 

 time has come when the camera may and should, to a great 

 extent, take the place of the gun. Several enthusiasts have 

 demonstrated that beautiful pictures of wild birds may be made 

 without taking their lives. How much more delight must a true 

 sportsman feel in the possession of a photograph of a beautiful 

 bird which still lives than in the mounted skin of one he has 

 killed ! A few trophies of this latter class are all right, and may 

 be reasonably and properly sought by anyone ; but the time has 

 passed when the man can be commended who persists in killing 

 every bird he can find, either for sport, for meat, or for the sake 

 of preserving the skins. 



The colored plates in this book are true to nature, and must 

 prove of great educational value. By their aid alone any bird 

 illustrated may be readily identified. 



G. O. SHIELDS. 

 viii 



