CHAPTER XVI 



BIRD^LOVERS' VACATION EXPEDITIONS 



IN these days the vacation habit has become well- 

 nigh universal. Nearly everyone plans, if it is 

 a possible thing, each year to take a vacation 

 trip away from home. The gunner is off to distant 

 woods, the fisherman to long-desired waters. But a 

 great many people simply make a trip to the country 

 or the sea-shore with nothing very definite in view, 

 to spend much of the time, perhaps, idling on the 

 hotel piazza. This may suit some, but a vacation is 

 far more profitable and enjoyable when based upon 

 some quest which arouses enthusiasm and incites to 

 exercise in the open. 



To those who care for birds I commend a vacation 

 trip to explore some new or interesting locality in 

 search of novelties. It may take the form of seeking 

 the haunts of some particular species or classes of 

 birds which have not yet become familiar, in order 

 to add them to one's " repertoire." In conjunction 

 with this the camera may play a very important part, 

 and make it truly a hunting trip, with all the zest of 

 the chase felt by every true sportsman. To make a 

 census of the bird-fauna of a little-known region is 

 another interesting line of work, as is the working 



215 



