INTRODUCTORY xxiii 



ence is made to birds that are eaten. To the lover of wild 

 life a bird is a bird, irrespective of whether or not it is edible. 

 I feel like putting on record here a kindly and well-meant 

 plea to the public not to be narrow in their sympathies, but 

 to take a broad interest in all wild life. 



Speaking of "game-birds" calls up a point in nomenclat- 

 ure. Among the hunters it is quite common to use the sin- 

 gular form for the plural in referring to birds of this class. 

 One says he saw twenty " quail" or a covey of " partridge." 

 But it would sound ridiculous to say a flock of sparrow, a 

 raft of gull, or a wavy line of goose. So, when I write quails, 

 it is not exactly through ignorance ! 



Applied ornithology is so new a field that its development 

 necessarily remains incomplete. There is no thought of 

 finality in mind in penning these pages and chapters. I con- 

 sider this Manual as merely preliminary, and shall hope 

 from time to time to revise it, adding discoveries and im- 

 provements, dropping what may have become superseded, 

 and trying to keep the matter up to date. 



That there is a real demand for such practical information 

 has been made very apparent by the many letters which 

 have come to me for several years from all over the United 

 States and Canada, asking for information, and especially 

 for literature hitherto lacking on these practical sub- 

 jects. 



Owing to this widespread interest, The National Associa- 

 tion of Audubon Societies has asked me to conduct under 

 their auspices a Department of Applied Ornithology. This 

 new department will try to serve as a bureau for practical 

 advice and assistance to all who desire help in attracting, 

 propagating, or increasing bird life; and it will provide bul- 

 letins or other helpful publications. I shall be glad to hear 

 at any time from such persons in care of .the National Asso- 



