How to Study Birds 



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nities to add to our knowledge of birds' habits during this most important 

 part of their lives are lost simply because the persons to whom the opportu- 

 nities come do not know what is known or what is unknown, what he 

 should try to see or the significance of things seen. 



The day has passed when general observations on the habits of our 

 birds are likely to prove of value. Nor can the student hope to dis- 

 cover much that is new unless, after learning what we especially desire 

 to know, he devotes himself systematically to the study of comparatively 

 few birds; selecting, preferably, the most common species in his vicinity. 



What Bird is This? 



Field Description. — Length, 6.25 in. Brownish gray, lighter below, more or less streaked with whitish; in life a 

 whitish line over the eye is more or less evident. 



Note. — Each number of Bird-Lore will contain a photograph, from specimens in 

 the American Museum of Natural History, of some comparatively little-known bird, or 

 bird in obscure plumage, the name of which will be withheld until the succeeding 

 number of the magazine, it being believed that this method of arousing the student's 

 curiosity will result in impressing the bird's characters on his mind far more strongly 

 than if its name were given with the picture. 



The species figured in October is Lincoln's Finch. 



