INTRODUCTION. 



The object of this work is the famiharizing of the every- 

 day citizen unused to scientific terms, with the habits 

 and economic importance of the birds of the State of New 

 Jersey. The study of Ornithology as suggested in books 

 treating on the subject is one attended with difficulties 

 sufficient to dampen the ardor of even the more than 

 willing student. The long and high-sounding names used 

 in the scientific nomenclature — which even Latinizes com- 

 mon English words — the many divisions into families and 

 species, and the disputes of authors as to what particular 

 family a certain bird belongs to have undoubtedly in the 

 past deterred many from following a study in itself so 

 interesting and so useful. In the present treatise the 

 author has avoided all scientific terms and designations 

 and has endeavored to foster a better acquaintance between 

 the human family and its feathered friends without neces- 

 sitating the medium of protracted study on the part of 

 those who would like to know more about the birds 

 around us. For the advanced student this book will be of 

 no value, for in it will be found no learned disquisitions 

 pertaining to the higher phases of Ornithology ; it simply 

 purports to tell in plain language sufficient about the 

 habits of birds to indicate their value to mankind and by 

 plain descriptions to facilitate identification. The bobo- 

 link, with its variable plumage and merry song, is an ob- 

 ject of interest, but that interest will be minimized to a 

 great many when they are told that the first thing of im- 

 portance to know about the bobolink is that he is a 

 dolichonyx oryzvorus of the family of icteridae. Scienti- 

 fic classification has its manifold uses, but there is some - 

 thing so deterrent about it to the average reader that 

 it has been wholly eschewed in, the present publication. 



