8 INTEODUCTION. 



he cares for the game, one of his greatest delights being 

 in the secret satisfaction of knowing that the birds, no 

 matter how wary they may be, are not keen enough to 

 circumvent him and his well-trained dogs. Knowing 

 this, he desires that when he is afield all should be pro- 

 pitious. The day, the fields, the streams, should be in 

 their perfectness. All thoughts of business banished, he 

 would be away from the din and bustle of city life, and 

 would, in their stead, have Nature furnish him with 

 refreshment and music. This refreshment: the bloom- 

 ing meadows, the cool springs, the sweet incense of the 

 prairie grass, the sensuous perfumes of the marshes — 

 Ms music: the mild soughing of the winds, the piping 

 of the quail, the drumming of the grouse, and the thou- 

 sand and one sights and sounds of wild life, all of which 

 will be seen by appreciative eyes, and heard by willing 

 ears, as he wanders over the fields and through the moist 

 valleys, interfered with by no sights or sounds of human 

 activity. 



The editor of this work is cognizant of the fact, that 

 most excellent books can be obtained treating on the sub- 

 ject of game birds. But the majority of such works 

 treat of them scientifically and ornithologically, and the 

 average sportsman does not care to delve so deeply into 

 the subject, tiring his brain over scientific terms. The 

 editor desires, therefore, rather to speak oT the birds as 

 others speak, to see them as others see them, avoiding 

 terms that will mystify or confuse his reader. As a hunter 

 is born, not made, so only he can write of game birds 

 who knows them, and loves their dwelling-places; for, 

 unless he has watched them from birdlings to mature 

 growth, he knows them not — simply knows of them. His 

 experience must have been of years, and his study, not 

 one of necessity; but the knowledge obtained, the result 

 of favorable opportunities and through love for the sub- 



