VOICE, MOVEMENT, AND MIGRATION 35 



spring. A still greater number, which merely chirp at other 

 times, trill a long series of notes during mating time. It 

 is practically only the male that sings ; the female chirps. 

 Nothing adds more to the enjoyment of nature than a knowl- 

 edge of the notes, songs, and warblings of the birds. No 

 teacher or book can give you more than a start toward the 

 attainment of this knowledge. Two rules only can be given : 

 (1) Learn to know birds. (2) Carefully observe them and 

 listen to their songs. 



As soon as you have learned to know birds, you will find 

 among them many differences besides those of voice, form, and 

 color. The places they frequent, — pond, marsh, meadow, up- 

 land, shrubbery, or forest, — in the water, on the ground, 

 among the rocks, on the trunks of trees, or in the tree tops, — 

 are as varied as their notes. 



Their habits of sitting, their course in flight, their method of 

 starting, their ways of coming to rest, are all peculiar to each 

 bird. 



Their solitary or social habits, their friendly or quarrelsome 

 ways, are also well worthy of observation and study. 



The way they flit their tails, the way they nod and twitch 

 their heads, the way they use their feet, are other peculiarities 

 that will aid you in recognizing them. 



You will have to acquire this kind of knowledge out of 

 doors. It cannot be taught in schoolrooms. It cannot be 

 taught to any extent even by a teacher who accompanies his 

 pupils on their trips. The teacher and books have done their 

 work when they have given the names of the birds. The rest 

 you must do for yourselves. 



Among the most interesting of all the peculiarities of birds, 

 are the migrations of a large proportion of them. Many 

 live and nest in the far north, hundreds of miles beyond the 

 limits of the United States, and go south to the Gulf States, 

 in the winter, traveling more than a thousand miles to their 

 new abode. These, for the northern United States, are but 

 binls of passage. Others, while nesting in Canada and Labra- 



