HOW TO GET ACQUAINTED WITH BIRDS 543 



Figs. 8 to 13 show how to make notes of ducks. Fig. 

 12 is simply a duck of no particular breed. If it has 

 a red head shaped like Fig. 8, it is a canvasback; if it 

 has a red head shaped like Fig. 9, it is a redhead. If it 

 is a golden eye, bufflehead, or old squaw, its head will 

 look something like Fig. 10, but if it has a bill like Fig. 

 11, it is a merganser. Describe the duck as in Figs. 6 

 and 7, and then mark the head which corresponds with 

 the one observed with an X, as in Fig. 1 1. 



Fig. 13 is a wader, and the notes for it may be made 

 in the same manner as the other birds described. 



In the spring watch for the arrival of birds from the 

 South, and in the late autumn note the arrival of the 

 Northern birds taking their annual trip South, and also 

 note the time of departure of our own birds. 



At my farm at Redding, Conn., the same birds that 

 were here last year have returned: the pair of blue birds 

 that built in a hole in the tree next door are inspecting 

 their old nesting-place; the brown thrasher is singing 

 now in the same tree he occupied for the same purpose 

 last year; the chimney swifts are booming up and down 

 my big chimney and occasionlly coming out through the 

 smoke of the open fire to bang their silly heads against 

 the window-glass, until I catch them and toss them out 

 of the door; the barn swallows that built on a board in 

 the wagon shed are busy talking over proposed im- 

 provements to their old home ; the same little humming 

 bird occupies the same perch on the telephone wire 

 that it did last year. As if purposely to furnish 

 me with another illustration of shorthand notes of 

 bird songs, my friend the purple finch has returned 



