Our Common Birds and How to Know Them 



When wandering in woods or groves, tactics of another sort should govern your 

 proceedings. Here you may confidently expect to surprise many a bird, and therefore 

 you should go slowly, with your attention given mostly to the tree-tops, quick to notice 

 and investigate each motion among the branches, and with ears alert for every chirp 

 or twitter. In such a place, you will, perhaps hear the chatter and see the bright eyes 

 or bushy tail of the saucy squirrel. Fur or feathers, quills or scales, all creatures will 

 be objects of interest to you even from the beginning of your investigations, while their 

 importance will intensify as increase of knowledge is obtained. 



When you have come upon a bird, of course your opera-glass will be put to use. 

 But even in raising it to your eyes your movement should be deliberate. Never forget 

 that a hasty motion or the quick glancing of the sun upon the barrel or lens of the 

 glass is sufficient to betray your presence. Now that you are watching your specimen, 

 it might, perhaps, seem that your end is attained and that no further special qualifications 

 are needful for what remains to be done, the simple act of observation. Not so ; your 

 observing faculties must be trained before good results can be assured. It is not sufficient 

 that you see in a merely superficial way ; you must be capable of detecting special and 



