CHAPTKK FII. 

 COLLECTING BIRDS. THEIR JfESTS, AXD EOOft. 



CnHteting Jiir<l*. With few exceptions, the plumages of the bird* 

 of the eastern l'iutel States are well known to science. You will col- 

 lect them, therefore, purely for the purpose of self-education. To this 

 end it is not necessary that you should acquire the large series of speci- 

 f'Uind in museums. From two to Jive -prcim. n- of each kind 

 are enough, and when through their medium you have become famil- 

 iar with the appearance of the s|>ecies they represent, u-e the gun only 

 to add to your list of acquaintances. If you wish to make a detailed, 

 critical study of changes in the plumage of species due to age, sex, or 

 season, or to compare some apparently abnormal specimen, vi-it the 

 nearest museum, the collections of which should be accessible t 

 earnest student. 



Our eastern birds have been measured and descried, their varia- 

 tions noted and recorded, and there is little left to learn in study- 

 ing their skins from a local standpoint. What we want now is knowl- 

 edge of the living, not the dead. bird. A thoroughly exhaustive 

 account of the habits of any one of our commonest )>irds is still to be 

 written. Remember, then, that collections are a means, not the end, 

 of ornithological research. 



When armed and ready for the field, you should have a canvas 

 hunting-coat, a pair of field- or opera-glasses, a fisherman's basket or 

 "creel," a discarded octavo pamphlet or catalogue of rather heavy 

 paper, cotton, a small bottle of corn-meal, and a 16- bore shot-gun 

 with a 0*32 auxiliary barrel, and the necessary complement of shells. 

 The auxiliary barrel can be purchased of dealers in natural hi-tory 

 supplies; it should not exceed ten inches in length. The shells for 

 it should be of brass, center-fire, and strong enough to stand reloading 

 many times. Load them with a fine-grained jxiwdcr and N . 13 shot 

 about three fifths powder and two fifths ..hot. For killing birds 

 from the size of a Blue Jay downward they will IK> effective at a dis- 

 tance of twenty to twenty-five yimU. In other words, fully three 

 fourths of your shooting will be done with them. Of Id-bore shells 



