Our Common Birds and How to Know Them 



But be patient. Do not expect to learn immediately all there is to be known. And 

 do not try to identify too many kinds of birds at the commencement of your career. 

 Choose for your earlier studies those that are at the same time abundant and that are 

 striking in plumage or song, or both ; confining yourself to male birds, that is to say, 

 to precisely those which alone as a rule possess these well-marked characteristics. For 

 if you puzzle over each bird you see, and with all your pains fail to become satisfied 

 as to its identity, you must be a person of uncommon perseverance, if you do not soon 

 grow disheartened. 



You now probably know the Robin and the Crow. Who does not ? Well, begin 

 with these. Study them. They alone, if really studied, are capable of affording much 

 entertainment. As for the Robin you need not leave the precincts of your own garden 

 to find him. But there are other birds probably not known to you, and yet always 

 present in great numbers, which you may immediately add to your list for present study ; 

 confident that after reading about them in the books you will recognize them on sight ; 

 or even should you chance to meet them without preparation that you will be able to 

 identify them by subsequent reference to the books. They are the Red-winged Black- 



