SUGGESTIONS AND DIBECTIONS FOB FIELD-WORK. 11 



gate in vast niimbe; s f re more readOy reached. There is a knack (if shooting loons and p;rehes 

 on the water ; if they are to bo reached at all hy the shot it will be; by aiming not directly at 

 them but at the water just in front of them. Tliey do not go under just where they float, 

 but kick up behind like a jumping-jack and pUmge forward. Eails and sevo'al kinds of 

 sparrows are confined to reedy marshes. But why prolong such desultory remarks t Little 

 can be said to the point without at least a miniature treatise on ornithology ; and I havi' not 

 yet even alluded to the diversified host of small insectivorous and granivorous birds that fill our 

 woods and fields. The very existence of most of these is unknown to all but the initiated ; yet 

 they include the treasures of tlie ornithologist. Some are plain and humble, others are among 

 the most beautiful objects in nature ; but most agree in being .small, and therefiire liable to be 

 overlooked. The sum of my advice about them must be brief Get over as much ground, 

 biith wooded and opeu, as you can thoroughly examine in a day's tramp, and go out as many 

 days as you can. It is not always necessary, however, to keep on the tramp, especially dur- 

 ing the migration of the restless insectivorous species. One may often shoot for hours without 

 moving more than a few yards, by selecting a favorable locality and allowing the birds to 

 come to lam as they pass in varied troops thmugh the low woodlands or swampy thickets. 

 Keep your eyes and ears wide open. Lo(di out for every rustling leaf and swaying tMdg and 

 bending blade of grass. Heai-ken to every note, however faint ; when there is no sound, listen 

 for a chirp. Habitually move as noiselessly as possible. Keep your gun alway.s ready. 

 Improve every opportunity of studying a bird you do not wish to destroy; you may often 

 make observations nujre valuable than the specimen. Let this be the rule witli all birds you 

 recognize. But I fear I must tell you to shoot an unknown bird on sight ; it may give you 

 the slip in a moment and a prize may be lost. One of the most fascinating things about field- 

 work is its delightful uncertainty : you never know what 's in store for you as you start out ; 

 you never can tell what will happen next ; surprises are always in order, and excitement is 

 continually whetted on the chances of the varied chase. 



For myself, the time is past, happily or not, when every bird was an agreeable surprise, 

 for dewdrops do not last all day ; but I have never yet walked in the Avoods without learning 

 something pleasant that I did not know before. I should consider a bird new to science 

 ample reward for a month's steady work ; one bird new to a locality would repay a week's 

 search ; a day is happily spent that shows me any bird that I never saw alive before. How 

 then can you, with so much before you, keep out of the woods another minute '? 



All Times are good times to go a-shootiiig; but some are better than otliers. (a.) Time 

 of year. In all temperate latitudes, spring and fall — periods of migration with most birds — 

 are the most profitable seasons for collecting. Not only are birds then most numerous, both as 

 species and as individuals, and most active, so as to be the more readily found, but they 

 include a far larger proportion of rare and valuable kinds. In every locality in this country 

 the periodical visitants outnumber the permanent residents ; in most regions the number of 

 regular migrants, that simply pass through in the spring and fall, equals or exceeds that of 

 either of the sets of species that come from the south in spring to breed during the summer, 

 or from the north to spend the winter. Far noi-th, of course, on or near the limit of the venial 

 migration, where there arc few if any migrants passing through, and where the winter birds 

 are extremely few, nearly all the bird fauna is composed of " summer visitants ; " far south, 

 in this country, the reverse is somewhat the case, though with many ipialifications. Between 

 these extremes, what is conventionally known as " a season " means the period of the vernal or 

 autumnal migration. For example, the body of birds present in tlie District of Columbia (where 

 I collected for several years) in the two months from April 20th to May 20th, and from Septem- 

 ber 10th to October 10th, is undoubtedly greater, as far as individuals are concerned, than the 

 total number found there at all other seasons of the year together. As for S]iecies, the number 



