286 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY AND ENTOMOLOGY 



it will be necessary to have some book giving the descriptions 

 of all or most of the species of the region, with tables and keys 

 for tracing out the different forms. Such bird manuals and 

 keys are numerous now, as, because of the popular interest 

 in bird study, many bird books have been published in the 

 last few years. The best general manual is Coues' "Key 

 to the Birds of North America" (sth ed., 2 vols.). Chapman's 

 "Handbook of the Birds of Eastern North America," and 

 Florence Bailey's "Handbook of Birds of Western United 

 States," are each complete for the regions covered by them. 

 There are other books that attempt to make it possible by keys 

 based chiefly on color and pattern differences to distinguish 

 the birds without having their dead bodies actually in hand, 

 which usually means shooting the bird. There are several 

 magazines devoted to accounts of the life and habits of birds. 

 Of these "Birdlore" is the organ of the Audubon Society for 

 the Protection of Birds, and is an accurate but popular and 

 beautifully illustrated journal. Fig. 127 will aid the stu- 

 dent in the use of any of these bird books by making him 

 acquainted with the names of the various external parts and 

 special plumage regions of the bird's body. 



Birds and Seasons. In trying to become acquainted with 

 the birds of a locality it must be borne in mind that the bird- 

 fauna of any region varies with the season. Some birds live 

 in it all the year through; these are called residents. Some 

 spend only the summer or breeding season in the locality, com- 

 ing up from the South in spring and flying back in autumn; 

 these are summer residents. Some spend only the winter in 

 the locality, coming down from the severer North at the be- 

 ginning of winter, and going back with the coming of spring; 

 these are winter residents. Some are to be found in the 

 locality only in spring and autumn, as they are migrating north 

 and south between their tropical winter quarters and their 

 northern summer or breeding home; these are migrants. And, 

 finally, an occasional representative of certain bird species, 

 whose normal range does not include the given locality at all, 

 will appear now and then, blown aside from its regular path 

 of migration, or otherwise astray; these are visitants. As to 



