xu. 



to get the most rest in the shortest time, requiring more effort to execute the 

 plan than the rest is worth, but the calm assurance that they are certainly to find 

 what they wish for. No one, no matter how busy, need think that for him 

 bird study is impossible, because some birds may be seen from any window. 

 Attention is the only requisite. Most present day bird students began their 

 study during their period of least leisure. 



This book is offered as a help in enlisting and developing your interest 

 in our native birds. The author has always loved birds, and has spent many 

 years in Ohio with the birds at all seasons and in many places. By education 

 and training he is fitted to express here that intense love and appreciation 

 which has been characteristic of his study during all of the ten years of our 

 fellowship as bird lovers. The many happy days and weeks of our association 

 in field work have served only to deepen my conviction that there are few per- 

 sons whose sympathetic appreciation and careful training could better fit them 

 for the task of revealing the birds to those who^ wish to know them. Study 

 in Ohio for a considerable term of years, supplemented by study of the same 

 and other birds in many places outside of the State has given to the author of 

 this book unusual knowledge and equipment for the task. College and Theo- 

 logical training also count much for accuracy of knowledge and facility of 

 expression. 



The State of Presidents is also the State of varied bird life. With Lake 

 Erie at one end and the Ohio River, a main tributary of the great Mississippi, 

 at the other, midway between the extreme east and the middle west, Ohio is 

 favorably situated for varied bird life, and for comparative ease in the study of 

 (hat life. The once almost continuous forests are rapidly disappearing, and 

 with them some of our birds, but there is a compensation in the appearance 

 of many others which do not live in the forests. We are now passing through 

 a transition period from the original conditions before the advent of the domi- 

 nant race to the modified conditions which he has made necessary. The rising- 

 generation will see more changes in the birds of our state than we have or will 

 see. The birds will not disappear so long as there is the keen interest shown 

 in them which ^\'e see dawning to-day. Their friendship and trust are worthy 

 of any effort which we may put forth. 



LYNDS JONES. 

 Oberlin, Ohio. 



