A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE. 97 



In respect to the manner and place of breeding of 

 many other species we have only partial and highly 

 unsatisfactory information. Dozens of land birds 

 might be mentioned — for instance, the kinglets, 

 western titmice, most of the warblers, the western 

 tanagers, Leucosticte finches, western crows and jays, 

 Empidonax flycatchers, and so on — as coming into 

 this category ; while it must include almost all of 

 the birds whose home is in the swamps and marshes. 



"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing," says 

 the poet, and it has proved so I fear, in this case, 

 since we have long been beguiled into contentment 

 with partial and fragmentary accounts, instead of 

 working out the whole body of facts which are needed 

 to make the breeding history of each bird completely 

 understood. 



This ignorance of the nesting habits of water birds 

 is, in most cases, far less excusable than in the other 

 instances mentioned above, since they are not un- 

 common and often breed numerously not far from our 

 homes, as for examples, the bitterns and several spe- 

 cies of familiar plovers and rails. Their summer 

 abodes, however, are hidden in the depths of a mo- 

 rass, or other watery space hard of access, and it 

 requires the urging of strong ambition and the great 

 patience of a real student to ascertain all the facts in 



