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The Keeping of Notes 



Although ornithologists have done their 

 whole duty in urging upon us the import- 

 ance of keeping careful notes of all things 

 seen in bird life, and have suggested 

 many helpful methods for recording 

 observations, yet many people are unmind- 

 ful of the lessons they have tried to teach. 

 Probably many of us have remonstrated 

 with friends, who witness numerous fine 

 chapters in the lives of birds about them, 

 yet will not make these observations 

 valuable by means of daily notes. 



Often women, whose duties keep them 

 closely about home, have better oppor- 

 tunities for some sorts of observations than 

 do their husbands, whose working hours 

 are spent in ofhces far from the birds; and 

 for some studies, the more years they are 

 pursued in one place the better the results. 

 Among teachers, few are so fortunate in the 

 character of their classes as is one not far 

 from here, who can drop her class-work 

 and run off to identify any strange bird 

 that flits by her windows. 



When the notebook habit has become 

 firmly fixed, how to preserve the records 

 in the most accessible shape becomes an 

 urgent question; how to keep data from 

 becoming buried beneath masses of het- 

 erogeneous, or even homogeneous, matter. 

 The methods pursued by others may be 

 helpful to many, and it is hoped that some 

 of these may be given in Bird-Lore. 



The writer has found it advantageous to 

 keep several notebooks in hand at the same 

 time. First there is the journal that has a 

 dozen pages ruled. On these are kept all 

 the facts necessary for filling out the 

 schedules for migration, besides several 

 other facts, such as whether the bird is 

 seen at home or abroad, by the observer, 

 or by some other person. The rest of the 

 book is devoted to daily records of a 

 miscellaneous character. Another note- 

 book contains items relating to the feeding 

 of birds — the winter notes in one portion 

 of the book, and those concerning summer 



feeding in another, so that any record can 

 be easily found. The same book has been 

 used for four years, and has space for the 

 observations of another season. 



Separate books are kept for recording 

 observations on the nidification of birds. 

 Some species furnish so many interesting 

 facts that a notebook containing twenty- 

 two thousand words (estimated) is filled 

 each year about a single species during its 

 summer stay with us. Year after year 

 there are frequent repetitions in such notes, 

 but these often become the most valued 

 part. About the nesting of some other 

 birds much less can be seen, and one note- 

 book will hold all the data gathered about 

 that species in several years. 



The only disadvantage in this system is 

 that sometimes three or four books must 

 be used daily and the date of the record 

 must be written down in each; the over- 

 balancing advantages become very obvi- 

 ous when one wishes to refer to the notes 

 of former seasons. 



A surprisingly large number of things 

 may be found worthy of note in any nest. 

 Many people record carefully the color 

 and spotting of the eggs; yet how many; 

 notice, the difference in color of the flesh 

 of the newly hatched young, or in the 

 shades of gray in their natal down? Some 

 birds that come from the shell with very 

 little or no down are wonderful in their 

 coloring; there is the liquid glow of a jewel, 

 to which is added the warm flush of life. 



In the lining of their mouths there is a 

 great range in shades of red and yellow. 

 Some mouths are of a pale and quite un- 

 interesting shade of yellow; from this shade 

 the yellow mouths deepen in color to the 

 richer hue of the lemon, and some even to 

 that of a pale orange, with a texture that 

 suggests the smooth undried oil paints of 

 the artist. The red mouths vary from the 

 silken pink of the rose leaf, to the liquid 

 depths of rose madder as it is spread un- 

 mixed upon the artist's canvas. One who 

 revels in color may well pause a few min- 

 utes to enjoy these wonderful tints, and 



(203) 



