24 'Twelve Months With 



may be exceedingly rare in the area of his observa- 

 tions. Bird study carries with it the satisfying of 

 an interested curiosity, which is ever on the alert 

 for a new discovery. It easily adapts itself to our 

 accustomed outdoor sports and recreations, such 

 as walking, hunting and fishing. And while, as 

 we have said, for one with eyes and ears for the 

 woods, it is not essential to the enjoyment of bird 

 life that one shall be able to idenitfy all the birds, 

 it is of course true that the more one knows of 

 them, the better he loves them, and he should be 

 familiar with the names and characteristics of our 

 more common birds. 



In April the birds appear in such large num- 

 bers it is sometimes confusing to the student, who 

 finds all manner of strange and interesting birds 

 flying about him in the woods and fields. Before 

 he can concentrate upon one for a sufficient length 

 of time to observe its markings, song or habits, 

 others of perhaps greater interest divert his atten- 

 tion, until he, like a child who happens upon a 

 profusion of wild flowers in the woods, in his 

 anxiety to reach them all, misses many. It 

 reminds one of these lines from a poem by 

 Katherine Tynan : 



"After the lark the swallow, 

 Blackbird in hill and hollow, 

 Thrushes and nightingales all roads I trod." 



The best time of day for observing the birds 

 is the morning or the late afternoon, especially 



