PREFATORY NOTE 



IN this day of outdoor and nature interest, we 

 are coming to realize that to the birds as well as 

 the flowers we owe much of the beauty and charm 

 of country life ; and if it could be accomplished 

 within the narrow margins of our busy lives, we 

 would gladly know more of the songsters. 



Their prevalence, though often unsuspected, 

 helps render this possible ; for they are to be 

 found in villages and cities as well as in the fields. 

 In a shrubby back yard in Chicago, close to one 

 of the main thoroughfares, Mrs. Sara Hubbard 

 has seen fifty-seven species in a year, and her re- 

 cord for ten years was a hundred species. In an 

 orchard in Brattleboro', Vermont, Mrs. E. B. 

 Davenport has noted seventy-nine species in a 

 year. And within the limits of Portland, Con- 

 necticut, Mr. John H. Sage has known ninety- 

 nine kinds of birds to nest (see Appendix, p. 

 388). In the larger cities, cemeteries and parks 

 offer rare opportunities for bird study. Dr. W. 

 C. Braislin gives a list of seventy-six species for 



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