Prelude 
to depreciate and thus fail to utilize their own 
more limited advantages. If there be any prac- 
tical value in the following narrative, it lies 
just in the fact that it is zof exceptional. Any 
observant visitor to the Park can verify for 
himself the record here given; nor do I appre- 
hend that the Park itself, as compared with 
equal areas elsewhere, is remarkably favored in 
opportunities for this pursuit. Indeed, during 
a large part of the year its public character and 
exposure are plainly detrimental to the suc- 
cess of the naturalist, and innumerable places 
throughout the country are equally favorable, 
or more so, for this line of study. The en- 
couragement of this record to the beginner is 
in the fact that it is such an ordinary one. 
While a similar investigation of some foreign 
avifauna, as of Europe or of South America, 
would afford considerable interest even to a 
North American reader, the present account 
offers the distinct advantage that the species 
herein described comprise at least four-fifths of 
the very ones which the general student will 
discover, from Canada to Pennsylvania, and. 
west to Ohio, and a large proportion of the 
species belonging to a still larger area. The 
Ramble is but one among a thousand spots, 
#3 
