Birds of Allegany Park 331 



Identification by Color. The successful student of birds must 

 have a reasonably good knowledge of color and color names. If 

 his sense of color is not good he is handicapped at the very begin- 

 ning. The identification of some of the more difficult species, when 

 color alone is considered, often hangs upon a slight distinction diffi- 

 cult to perceive in the field. Thrushes, flycatchers and sparrows 

 are often to be distinguished by slight differences in shades of 

 olive, brown, gray, buff or cream. These colors, however distinct 

 when on paper close to the eye, are most difficult to distinguish 

 when on the feathers of a live bird flitting through the dim light 

 of a forest and concealing itself in the foliage. 



To see color clearly the light must be in the right direction, com- 

 ing from back of the observer and not from behind the bird. A 

 bird seen against the skyline will appear all black, when in reality 

 it may be brightly colored. Iridescent plumage, as that of the 

 swallows, the Hummingbird, and the blackbirds is liable to appear 

 any color but the right one. The observer must then maneuver to 

 get his bird in the proper light, and if possible against a dark back- 

 ground, such as the foliage or trunk of a tree or the ground itself. 

 If, while attempting to do this, the bird disappears into places 

 where it cannot be found or followed, the observer must patiently 

 put off its identification to a more opportune time, storing up in 

 memory or his notebook the observations already made, for future 

 reference. 



Identification by Size. Most beginners underestimate the size 

 of a bird in the field. For this reason size expressed in length by 

 inches is deceiving. Ask anyone who has never looked it up in a 

 book how long a Robin is, and he will be likely to say six or seven 

 inches. In reality the length is nearly ten inches. For this reason, 

 expressions such as " a little smaller than the Robin " or " a little 

 larger than the English Sparrow " mean more to the beginner than 

 length expressed in inches. I have used such expressions here in 

 describing the Allegany Park birds, comparing their sizes with 

 three well-known birds, the English Sparrow, Robin and Crow, 

 whose lengths are approximately six, ten and eighteen inches. 



The length of a bird is not always a true measure of its size or 

 weight. For example, the Brown Thrasher is considerably longer 

 than the Meadowlark : but the Meadowlark is really a larger and 

 heavier bird, with a short tail, whereas the Thrasher appears more 

 slender, with a long tail. Lonef-winged birds in flight often appear 

 larger than they really are. The Osprey has often been mistaken 

 for an Eagle, not so much because of the white on its head, as 

 because of the long wings that make it appear unusually large. 



Estimate of size is frequently difficult to make in the field, and 

 identification of a bird by size alone is never safe. One cannot 

 distinguish with certainty in the field between Herring and Ring- 

 billed Gulls, or Common and Fish Crows by size alone. Even a 

 trained observer often has the experience of seeing a bird that ap- 

 pears much larger or smaller than the species to which he knows 

 it belongs. It is reallv not so much larger or smaller, for the size 



