OUTDOOR BIRD STUDY. 



HINTS FOR BEGINNERS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The beginning of interest in bird study is gradual in some 

 cases. In others, especially in the young, it is almost instantly 

 awakened by the unexpected sight of some beautiful bird, or 

 even by a book with colored plates. 



All beginners have before them in this study a source of 

 unimagined enjoyment, wonder and delight. Bradford Torrey, 

 whose interest in birds came with mature years, once said that 

 when a man began to be ornithologically inclined, it was very 

 much as if all the birds had just been created, or at least as if 

 they had just been let out of the Ark. "Like the Lord's 

 mercies," he said, "they were new every morning and fresh 

 every evening." John Burroughs asserts that if "you take the 

 first step in ornithology you are ticketed for the whole voyage." 

 This is true of enthusiastic and industrious beginners, some of 

 whom may become ornithologists in the fullness of time, but 

 these hints for outdoor bird study were not written for ex- 

 perienced ornithologists, who do not need them, but for that 

 larger class of people who, having taken the first step, find 

 pleasurable recreation in spending a part of their leisure time 

 in the observation and study of living birds in the field. The 

 first step in this study is to learn how, when and where to 

 find birds. ^ 



1 Four Nature Leaflets published by the writer when Ornithologist to the Massachusetts State 

 Board of Agriculture, under the general title "Hints for Outdoor Bird Study," form the basis of 

 the present circular. The demand for these leaflets became so great that by the year 1918 seven 

 editions had been issued. Also most of the material contained in these leaflets had been copied 

 in other public prints, and had been utilized notably as an introductory chapter in the second 

 volume of the "Birds of America," published by the University Society of New York. In 1918 

 the Great and General Court of Massachusetts abolished the Board of Agriculture, and replaced 

 it with a State Department of Agriculture. The Department has discontinued the publication of 

 Nature Leaflets, but as the demand for the "Hints" continues, the entire matter contained in 

 them has been revised, more or less rewritten, and, with some additions, adapted and prepared 

 as a circular under the above title. 



