THE APPEAL OF THE SPORT 



attends, carry on a keen rivalry with the boys in this 

 bird study sport, and not infrequently bear off the 

 laurels, as in getting the first record of the season of 

 some species, or some new one for the list, or in the 

 prize photographic competitions in the magazines for 

 the best pictures of wild birds or animals from life. So 

 there is room in the sport for all, and whole families, 

 parents and children, may all be bird-study sportsmen ! 



In writing this book I have in my heart a very 

 warm place for the boys and young men who live in 

 the country. Some think that life in the country is 

 dull, and long to get upon city pavements. But if I 

 can get them to catch my spirit, they will change their 

 minds, and country life will take on new interest and 

 joy. Though I was born and brought up in the city, 

 the country was where I wanted to be. On every 

 Saturday holiday, and on many an afternoon after 

 school, I might have been seen making tracks for 

 woods or waters. During spring and Christmas vaca- 

 tions I would take the train for Cape Cod. I never can 

 get over the peculiar thrill which I felt whenever I 

 crossed the boundary of a "Cape" town and felt that I 

 was actually on Cape Cod. Somehow it seemed like 

 sacred ground, a land of bliss unspeakable. I was 

 under a spell of excitement, of exhilaration. It was 

 country, bird country — "God's country," as they say 

 out West. 



A country town appeals to me as a sort of gold mine. 

 Those wooded hills are treasure houses, these swamps 



9 



