iv PREFACE. 



he guesses lie knows, but by what he Jcnoivs he knows, which 

 for most of us does not so very much exceed the limits of 

 what we have seen and experienced. To have seen something 

 clearly, to be able to tell about it with precision, to have done 

 something as well as it could be done, even if the sight, the 

 tale, the deed, were not notable, gives power and poise. All 

 studies that increase this effective force of the student are 

 profitable. Theoretically, all studies do increase it, but not 

 for all students. But nature study, under any except the 

 poorest instruction, must give a first-handed acquaintance 

 with facts and an assurance of knowledge. 



It should be remembered, too, that the collection and study 

 of facts by direct observation is scientific work. The com- 

 parison and analysis of them also is scientific work. Observa- 

 tion and comparison not learning hard names is science. 

 Therefore the pupil who can tell one new fact about a bird 

 has done more real work of the kind that counts than the 

 other pupil who has learned all its Latin names. 



Yet I am not discouraging the acquisition of the scientific 

 terminology. Intelligent children find the Latin names as 

 easy to learn as the English, and, with a little assistance, can 

 master all the commoner botanical, or ornithological, or ento- 

 mological names. This, however, is not the science that the 

 teacher is supposed to teach, and it should not be required, 

 but only permitted to those who desire to do extra work. 



It has been urged against many books on birds that they 

 are New England treatises. In making this one, special care 

 has been taken to have a book that could be used in any part 

 of the country. It is true that the author has frankly " harked 

 back " to a childhood spent in Maine, 



"East, West, 

 Hame's best ; " 



but all the birds selected for special study, with the exceptions 

 of the sooty grouse and the pine grosbeak, are birds that are 



