SUGGESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FIELD-WORK. 15 



(as too often happens), throw away according to size, fithtr things being equal. Given only 

 so many cuhic inches or feet, eliminate the few larf/e birds which take np the space that would 

 contain fifty or a hundred different little ones. If you have a fine large bald eagle or pelican, 

 for instance, throw it away first, and follow it with your ducks, geese, etc. In this way, the 

 bulk of a large miscellaneous collection may be reduced one half, perliaps, with very little 

 depreciation of its actual value. The same principle may be extended to other collectifins in 

 natural history (excepting fossils, which are always weighty, if not also bulky) ; very few bird- 

 skins, indeed, being as valuable contributions to science as, for example, a vial of miscella- 

 neous insects that occupies no more room may prove to be. 



What is " A Good Day's Work ? " — Fifty birds shot, their skins preserved, and oT)ser- 

 vations recorded, is a very good day's work; it is sharp jjractice, even when birds are plentiful. 

 I never knew a person to average anywhere near it; even during the "season" such work 

 cannot possibly be sustained. You may, of course, by a murderous discharge into a flock, 

 as of blackbirds or reedbirds, get a hundred or more in a moment ; but I refer to collecting 

 a fair variety of birds. You wiU do very well if you average a dozen a day during the seasons. 

 I doubt whether any collector ever averaged as many the year around ; it would lie over four 

 thousand specimens annuaUy. The greatest number I ever procured and prepared in one day 

 was forty, and I have not often gone over twenty. Even when collecting regularly and 

 assiduously, I am satisfied to average a dozen a day during the migrations, and one-third or 

 one-fourth as many the rest of the year. Probably this implies the shooting of about one in 

 five not skinned for various reasons, as mutilation, decay, or want of time. 



Approaching Birds, — There is little if any trouble in getting near enough to shoot 

 most birds. With notable exceptions, they are harder to see when near enough, or to hit 

 when seen ; particularly small birds that are almost incessantly in motion. As a rule — and a 

 curious one it is — difficulty of approach is in direct ratio to the size of the bird ; it is perhaps 

 because large conspicuous birds are objects of more general pursuit than the little ones you 

 ordinarily search for. The qualities that birds possess for self-preservation n)ay be called 

 ivariness in large birds, shyness in sinall ones. The former make ofl' knowingly from a sus- 

 picious object: the latter fly from anything that is strange to them, be it dangerous or not. 

 This is strikingly illustrated in the behavior of small birds in the wilderness, as contrasted with 

 their actions about towns; singular as it may seem, they are more timid under the former cir- 

 cumstances than when grown accustomed to the presence of man. It is just the reverse with 

 a hawk or raven, for instance ; in populous districts they spend much of their time in trying t(.> 

 save their skins, while in a new country they have not learned, like Indians, that a white man 

 is "mighty uncertain." In stealing on a shy bird, you will of course take advantage of any 

 cover that may offer, as inequalities of the ground, thick bushes, the trunks of trees ; and it is 

 often worth while to make a consideralile detour to secure unobserved approach. I think that 

 birds are more likely, as a rule, to be frightened away by the movements of the collector, 

 than by his simple presence, however near, and that they are more afraid of noise than of 

 mere motitjn. Crackling of twigs and rustling of leaves are sharp sounds, though not loud 

 ones ; you may have sometimes been suqirised to fiml how distinctly you could hear the move- 

 ments of a horse or cow in underbrush at some distance. Birds liave sharp ears for such 

 sounds. Fonn a habit of stealthy movement ; it tells, in the long run, in comparison with 

 lumbering tread. There are no special precautions to be taken in shooting througJi high open 

 forest ; you have only to saunter along with your eyes in the tree-tops. It is ordinarily the 

 easiest and on the whole the most renumerative path of the collector. In traversing fields and 

 meadows move briskly, your principal object being to flush birds out of the grass ; and as most 

 of your shots will be snap ones, keep in readiness for instant action. Excellent and varied 



