NATURE'S CALENDAR 



May i6 telescope or opera-g^lass to aid you in see- 



ingtiie birds well. It is undoubtedly true, 

 though regrettable, that if you go deeply 

 into ornithology, and try to make your- 

 self thoroughly acquainted with every 

 species in your neighborhood, you must 

 use a gun, unless you have access to 

 some collection of bird-skins by which 

 you can study the small points of differ- 

 ence which distinguish species that at a 

 distance look confusedly alike. But a 

 beginner has no need to shoot, and I 

 shall assume that your study is not of 

 dead but of living birds. 



The early morning is the best time of 

 the day. Birds are early risers. The air 

 is cool, the light is good. The birds are 

 hungry and so busy in feeding that you 

 not only have the best opportunity to 

 learn what they eat, and how they find or 

 capture it, but they are less timid than 

 later in the day. Their songs, too, are 

 never so joyous and frequently repeated 

 as in the early morning hours, and conse- 

 quently so easily to be learned and mem- 

 orized. 



It is not necessary to go a long way 

 from home to find your material, unless 

 you live in the heart of a great city, and 

 even there the parks abound in feathered 

 visitors. Early morning in Central Park. 

 New York, or along the Wissahickon, in 

 Philadelphia, or in Lincoln Park, Chica- 

 go, is as good a place for the young stu- 

 dent as the heart of the Blue Ridge — bet- 



