PREFACE 



We find to-day some thirteen or fourteen thousand 

 different forms, or species, of birds upon the earth. I'or 

 many years ornitholo.j;ists have lal)oured to name, and to 

 arrange in some rational order, these multitudinous forms 

 of bird life. Some such arranjiement is, of course, a ncves- 

 sity — without a handle we should indeed l)e handicapped 

 in studyini;- a bird; but let us not foriict that classification 

 is but a means to an end. 



Far too man}- students of birds follow some such mode 

 of procedure as this: When a new bird is found, it is shot, 

 labelled, preserved in a collection and foi^uotten; or. if 

 studying the l)ird with a i^lass, all (effort is centred in 

 findinii; some characteristic l)y which it can be named, 

 and, succeeding- in this, search is at once made for still 

 another species, whose name can in turn be added to a hst. 

 Observing the habits, the courtshij) and nest-building, 

 and memorizing the song, is a third phase of bird-stud\- — 

 the best of all three methods; but few ind(MHl ha\-e e\-er 

 given a moment's thought to the lurd itsd/. 



I have lectured to an audience of teachers, every one 

 of whom was able to identify fifty birds or more. l)ut not 

 one among them knew the significance of the scales on 



