PREFATORY NOTE 



An important and sometimes difficult phase in the 

 study of bird life is to observe accurately and report 

 without false interpretation the habits and actions of 

 birds. The naturalist who uses the camera in the field 

 often has the advantage of backing his observations with 

 proof (not an unimportant thing in nature writing of 

 to-day), and if he produces good authentic photographs, 

 one may be quite sure they were not secured without 

 patient waiting and a careful study of his subjects. 



In this book no attempt has been made to include all 

 the different bird families, but a series of representative 

 birds from the hummingbird to the eagle has been se- 

 lected. Each chapter represents a close and continued 

 study with camera and notebook at the home of some bird 

 or group of birds, — a true life history of each species. 

 It is the bird as a live creature, its real wild personality 

 and character, that I have tried to portray. 



Many of these studies were made in the West, but in 

 the list of birds treated an effort has been made to get a 

 selection that is national in scope. In the popular mind 

 a song sparrow is a song sparrow from ocean to ocean, 

 yet scientifically he represents over a dozen subspecies, 



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