THE INVITATION 205 
enthusiasm has open to him or her the whole field 
anew, and is eligible to experience all the thrill and 
delight of original discoverers. 
But let me say, in the same breath, that the 
books can by no manner of means be dispensed 
with. A copy of Wilson or Audubon, for refer- 
ence and to compare notes with, is invaluable. In ‘ 
lieu of these, access to some large museum or col- 
lection would be a great help. In the beginning, 
one finds it very difficult to identify a bird from 
any verbal description. Reference to a colored 
plate, or to a stuffed specimen, at once settles the 
matter. This is the chief value of the books; they 
are charts to sail by; the route is mapped out, and 
much time and labor thereby saved. First find 
your bird; observe its ways, its song, its calls, its 
flight, its haunts; then shoot it (mot ogle it with a 
glass), and compare with Audubon. In this way 
the feathered kingdom may soon be conquered. 
The ornithologists divide and subdivide the birds 
into a great many orders, families, genera, species, 
etc., which, at first sight, are apt to confuse and 
discourage the reader. But any interested person 
can acquaint himself with most of our song-birds 
by keeping in mind a few general divisions, and 
observing the characteristics of each. By far the 
greater number of our land-birds are either warblers, 
vireos, flycatchers, thrushes, or finches. 
The warblers are, perhaps, the most puzzling. 
These are the true Sylvia, the real wood-birds. 
They are small, very active, but feeble songsters, 
ole 
