Our Common Birds and How to Know Them 



bird, the Catbird, the Thrush (at first you will not be able to say which one of the 

 Thrushes), the American Goldfinch, the Baltimore Oriole, the Cuckoo, the Flicker, the 

 Hummingbird, the Indigo-bird, the Bobolink, the Meadowlark, the Scarlet Tanager, the 

 Bluebird, the Summer Redbird, the Blue Jay, the Chickadee, the Kingfisher, the Chimney 

 Swift, the Barn Swallow, the Owl and Woodpecker (perhaps the particular kind of these 

 last two will puzzle you), the House Wren, the Cedarbird, and, after you have learned 

 the song, the Song Sparrow. 



This is no mean catalogue, and, when you have become familiar with the birds 

 comprising it, you will feel that you have added to the number of your acquaintances a 

 very goodly company. But before this is accomplished, and it will not require a long 

 time to do it, you will have unconsciously learned to know many less easily distinguished 

 birds among the Flycatchers and Warblers, not to mention some of the more soberly 

 attired partners of those birds which have been mentioned. 



In selecting such a list as has been given however, it must be borne in mind that 

 some of these birds vary in color according to the time of year. The Bobolink, for 

 example, in Spring and Summer is strongly marked with white, black and buff, while in 



