A Season's Study of Some of Our Water Birds 



BY JULIAN K. POTTER 



To introduce shop, the identification of some of the rarer and 

 more difficult birds, which are strikingly similar to familiar species, 

 might be likened to the detection of counterfeit notes. The bank 

 teller picks up a handful of notes, runs rapidly through them and 

 suddenly through sight, feeling, or intuition he becomes suspicious 

 of one of them. Close examination proves it to be a counterfeit. 

 To the depositor who has been victimized and has witnessed the 

 detection, the teller's ability seems most uncanny and he immedi- 

 ately desires to know how it is done. This is sometimes most 

 difficult to explain but one thing is certain, this ability is acquired 

 only by long practice and through a perfect knowledge of the 

 color, feel, design and clean cut appearance of every detail of a 

 good note. As sight and feeling enter largely into the detection 

 of a counterfeit, in a like manner sight and hearing enter into the 

 detection and identification of similar but unusual birds. In 

 both cases the senses are aided very materially by experience 

 and aptitude. 



Those who were on the Memorial Day field trip to Cape May 

 (1923) very well remember how we became suspicious of a 

 certain Yellow Warbler song and in searching for the author 

 we actually saw a Yellow Warbler, but fortunately almost at the 

 same instant Gillespie caught sight of a Warbler with a gray back 

 which proved to be the author of the song and a Yellow-throated 

 Warbler. It was only by being thoroughly familiar with the 

 song of the Yellow Warbler in the first place, and the glimpse of 

 the gray back of the bird by one man, in the second place, that 

 led to the identification of the straggler. 



Again the same day we came across what to all appearances 

 was an ordinary Kingbird. Close examination showed the bird 

 had no white band on the end of the tail, other details were dis- 

 covered which quickly proved the bird without a doubt to be a 

 Gray Kingbird. Only a thorough knowledge of the appearance 

 of our Kingbird led to this interesting discovery. 



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