PREFACE. Vv 
ject of both cultivating and directing the student’s 
powers of observation. In order, however, to give 
him some idea of the bird’s place in Nature, the sub- 
jects of relationships and classification have been 
touched on briefly. Then follow a series of objec- 
tive, seasonal lessons which are the main feature of 
the book. The advantages of studying birds under 
seasonal groupings are two-fold. First, by elimi- 
nating species which are absent, it greatly simplifies 
the question of identification. Second, it is more 
real. If the student can be told that a certain spe- 
cies will doubtless arrive from the south the same 
day on which he is reading about it, his interest in 
the subject will be at once increased ; it becomes a 
matter of contemporary history. Furthermore, by 
studying the birds with the seasons, we learn in the 
beginning to properly associate them with certain 
accompanying natural phenomena, and their com- 
ings and goings become significant events in our 
calendar, 
As we become familiar with birds, and learn to 
recognize them, the question of identity will no 
longer remain a bar to our better acquaintance, and 
our interest in them will deepen. We shall begin 
to inquire into the questions of form and habit, 
color, migration, song, nesting, etc.; and as a guide 
to observations of this character, there are given a 
series of lessons treating of the philosophic,or sub- 
jective side of bird-study, the wide scope of which 
will be readily appreciated. 
F. M. ©. 
Americas Museum or Natrurat History. 
