INTRODUCTION 



WHEREVER there are people there are birds, 

 so it makes comparatively little difference where 

 you live, if you are only in earnest about getting 

 acquainted with your feathered neighbors. Even 

 in a Chicago back yard fifty-seven kinds of birds 

 have been seen in a year, and in a yard in Port- 

 land, Connecticut, ninety-one species have been 

 recorded. Twenty-six kinds are known to nest 

 in the city of Washington, and in the parks and 

 cemeteries of San Francisco in winter I have 

 found twenty-two kinds, while seventy-six are 

 recorded for Prospect Park, Brooklyn, and a hun- 

 dred and forty-two for Central Park, New York. 



There are especial advantages in beginning to 

 study birds in the cities, for by going to the mu- 

 seums you can compare the bird skins with the 

 birds you have seen in the field. And, moreover, 

 you can get an idea of the grouping of the differ- 

 ent families which will help you materially in 

 placing the live bird when you meet him at home. 



If you do not live in the city, as I have said 

 elsewhere, " shrubby village dooryards, the trees 

 of village streets, and orchards, roadside fences, 



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