2i6 HOW TO STUDY BIRDS 



out of a detailed study of some rare or peculiar 

 species. 



From such a trip, on which one has lived outdoors 

 with mind and body alert, one will get tenfold more 

 benefit and exhilaration than by dawdling about a 

 fashionable resort. The more tired one is, generally 

 speaking, the more does one need such a trip as I 

 describe. For my own part I know that to feel the 

 way I do when returning from a vacation of this sort 

 is worth more than gold to renew one's youth, 

 with all its freshness, vigor, vivacity, when nothing is 

 too hard to undertake and life is abundantly worth 

 living. In contrast the air indoors seems dead, and 

 one wants to throw everything wide open and wel- 

 come the atmosphere of the woods, shore, or prairie. 



Of expeditions of this description there are 

 many sorts, suited to one's means or inclination. If 

 the expense must be moderate, it will cost less to put 

 up at the home of some farmer or fisherman in 

 a locality rich with birds than to board at some much- 

 advertised hotel and will probably afford better op- 

 portunities for success. If one can find suitable com- 

 panions, it is perfectly possible to try the tent and 

 camp outfit, which is often the very best thing to do 

 in a sparsely settled country, so that one can be right 

 in the haunts of the birds without loss of time. 



Usually the most interesting time for an expedition 

 to study birds is in the nesting-season, so it is in re- 

 gard to this period that I will first make suggestions. 

 Of course the easiest plan, which the greater number 



