PREFACE. 



If any doubt existed in the mind of the author at the inception of his 

 task, that the people of Ohio would welcome a book on the birds of the state, 

 that doubt has quite vanished before the words of encouragement and appro- 

 bation which have already come in, not only from nature-students but from 

 prominent educators and men of affairs. The love of out-of-doors is a grow- 

 ing passion in the hearts of our people, and the willingness on the part of all 

 classes to sit at Nature's feet is a most hopeful sign of the times. Nature 

 in all her aspects is richly vocal to her true disciples, but at no time does she 

 speak more clearly and sweetly, and in language which may be "understanded 

 of the people," than in the voices of the birds. It is with a sense of privi- 

 lege, therefore, that the author has recbrded his observations and impressions 

 of bird-life in this state, and has set forth in orderly fashion a brief sum- 

 mary of our knowledge of our feathered friends. To quicken interest in. the 

 birds, to facilitate recognition of their features and observation of their 

 habits and to raise for them, if possible, an^ army of well-wishers — on the 

 theory that all who really know must love them — :has been the author's 

 purpose. Of its accomplishment the future must judge. 



A fully illustrated book on the birds of a single state is in a measure 

 a new departure, but the perfection . of modern methods, especially that of 

 the three-color process, fortunately makes it possible. With four excep- 

 tions, the half-tone cuts in this book are from photographs taken in Ohio, 

 chiefly during the season of 1903. While the aim has been tO' secure in the 

 pictures both the educational and the artistic interest, the latter has of necessity 

 been occasionally sacrificed. 



The treatment of each bird includes both a technical description, of 

 plumage, etc., and a popular account of its habits in Ohio. In the limits 

 prescribed it has at no time been possible to accord any bird the dignity of 

 a genuine life-history, and the sketches as written are by no means exhaus- 

 tive. In the scientific treatment also it was deemed best not to attempt the 

 elaboration of points in structural ornithology, such as may be found in any 

 standard manual, but to utilize the space thus saved for a more careful analysis 

 of plumage, in so far as local material was available. The plumage descrip- 

 tions and measurements are based almost entirely upon a first-hand study 

 of the Ohio State University collections, and these are nearly complete as 



xiii. 



