Birds of Eastern Canada. 



INTRODUCTION. 



OBJECT OF THE BOOK. 



Of late years there has been a great awakening of interest in the subject 

 of natural history. More and more people are beginning to realize the 

 pleasure and profit that can be derived from observation of common natural 

 objects. In this growing field of nature study, few subjects have attracted 

 so much popular attention as birds and few forms of life appeal so strongly 

 to the aesthetic sense. They are beautiful; they arouse curiosity; their 

 elusiveness piques the imagination; and by presenting constantly new 

 aspects they never become commonplace. 



The ornithological side is one from which the problems of nature can 

 be successfully attacked from so many standpoints and in so many ways 

 that there is interesting and valuable work for all to accomplish according 

 to individual tafste or opportunity. Those who incline towards systematic 

 work can split their definitions as finely as human powers of observation 

 permit. The animal psychologist can develop his problems as far as 

 ingenuity can devise methods for experimentation. The ordinary nature 

 lover can observe and note as painstakingly as opportunity permits; he 

 can record information of scientific as well as popular interest, take pleasure 

 in observing passing beauties, train his powers of observation, and acquire 

 a knowledge that greatly increases his capacity for appreciation of nature. 

 Even the unsentimental, practical man, who has little outward sympathy 

 with abstract beauty, has his attention attracted by the evident economic 

 value of birds. 



The "Birds of Eastern Canada" has been written to awaken and, 

 where it already exists, to stimulate an interest, both sesthethic and practical, 

 in the study of Canadian birds and to suggest the sentimental, scientific, 

 and economic value, of that study; to assist in the identification of native 

 species; and to furnish the economist with a ready means of determining 

 bird friend from bird foe that he may act intelligently towards them and 

 to the best interest of himself and the country at large; to present in a 

 readily accessible form reliable data upon which measures of protective 

 legislation may be based; to point out some of the pitfalls that have 

 caught the inexperienced in the past; and to suggest methods for their 

 future avoidance. 



SCOPE OF THE BOOK. 



This work covers all the birds that the ordinary observer is likely to 

 meet with between the Atlantic coast and the prairies north of the Inter- 

 national Boundary. This region forms a natural zoological area (see 

 Distribution, page 8), including what may be called the eastern woodlands 

 of Canada, a fairly homogeneous section, physically, geographically, and 

 zoologically. The prairies are radically different in character and, con- 

 sequently, exhibit an entirely different aspect of bird life. The birds of 



