THE NESTING SEASON 89 



and guillemots on cliffs. Many water-birds select 

 lonely, inaccessible islands. 



Nests can be successfully hunted and found both 

 by special and general search. In the first case one 

 has in mind some particularly desired nest. The 

 thing to do is to become familiar with the bird at 

 sight, its songs or notes, and learn what sort of 

 places it frequents and chooses for nesting. This 

 can be ascertained in various ways through books, 

 from friends. Then go out and hunt for birds of 

 that kind. When one is found, especially if it be seen 

 repeatedly near one place, the nest will not be very 

 far off. To be sure, it may be a hundred or two 

 yards away, in any direction, or much more with large 

 birds, which gives wide latitude for searching. But 

 if one knows, even from reading, where to look, in 

 many cases the area for search can be greatly nar- 

 rowed, and it becomes largely a matter of persistence, 

 activity, and keenness of observation to find the nest. 



When it comes to the general search, to go out 

 somewhere and look around for anything that may 

 turn up, even the person who knows nothing of birds 

 is liable to flush birds from their nests by merely 

 " stirring around " or to spy out some of them. Yet 

 one will accomplish far more through having at least 

 read about the birds, knowing what kinds to look 

 for in the locality chosen for the search, and how and 

 where these birds nest. Such knowledge will keep 

 one from wasting time in unlikely places or from look- 

 ing in the wrong place for the nest of some bird which 



