BIRDS 



237 



limps 



e from a car- 



flowers of which you caught only a 

 window in passing? You 

 did not see them definitely, 

 and at best you can only 

 carry their image in your 

 mind until you have oppor- 

 tunity to see them in detail. 



"So it is with birds. 

 Do not be discouraged if 

 the books fail to show you 

 the brown bird with white 

 spots on its wings. Prob- 

 ably it exists only through 

 your hasty observation. 



"Arm yourself with a 

 field- or opera-glass, there- 

 fore, without which you 

 will be badly handicapped, 

 and look your bird over 

 with enough care to get a 

 general idea of its size, form 

 — particularly the form of 

 the bill — color, and mark- 

 ings. Then — and I cannot 

 emphasize this too strongly 

 — put what you have seen 

 into your notebook at once. 

 For, as I have elsewhere 

 said, ' not only do our 

 memories sometimes de- 

 ceive us, but we really see Fig. 194. -Xtst and eggs of ruby- 

 , . . , ., throat liumming-bird, TrotJiihis 



nothmg with exactness until 

 we attempt to describe it. ' 

 " It is true that all the 

 birds will not pose before your glasses Ion 



coiiibris, seen from above, in apple- 

 tree. (Photograph by E. G. Tabor; 

 permission of Macmillan Co.) 



enough for 



