All Day With the Birds. 125 



Blue-gray Gnatcatcher had a nest in a black gum. This 

 same gum has held one nest, occasionally two, every year 

 for the last seven years. A sparrow, not identified, built in 

 a white oak on a horizontal limb fourteen feet from the 

 ground and raised a set of three, while ten feet higher was a 

 nest of a flycatcher, also unidentified, which raised a family 

 of three. 



East Point, Georgia. 



ALL DAY WITH THE BIRDS. May 7, 1902. 



THERE is a fascination about the quest for the largest 

 list of birds in a day which is not equalled even by the 

 search for new species in a region which one has worked 

 for years. The limits of time, strength, and territory pos- 

 sible to cover furnish the incentive for a sort of field 

 study which is wholly out of accord with any accepted 

 method. One cannot tarry long in any place and wait for 

 the birds to come to him; he must search out the birds. 

 Nor will time permit him to study the individuals without 

 sacrificing the purpose of the day's work. A species once 

 recorded must be put aside as finished for the day and the 

 quest for those not yet seen carried forward vigorously. It 

 may very well be true that this nervous activity which for- 

 bids the usual method of field work — the calm waiting for 

 the birds to appear — makes us overlook some species; but 

 if so, it certainly discovers to us many that would not be 

 likely to come within our ken. It is an exhausting woik, 

 both on account of the length of the day and the energy 

 which must be thrown into it. One may well pause to ask 

 if it pays, or if the results justify the outlay. We think 

 they do. One of the questions most frequently asked the 

 writer is, "How many birds can you see in a day?", by 

 persons who have a genuine interest in the birds and want 

 to know what are the possibilities of a single day's study. 

 It is a question that should have a fairly accurate answer 



