AMERICAN GAME BIRDS 



This book is the result of repeated requests from sportsmen in tlie last few 

 years for a convenient handbook illustrative and descriptive of the game 

 birds. Although there are hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of volumes deal- 

 ing with hunting the various species of wild fowl, we beUeve "American 

 Game Biids" to be the first to illustrate practically all of them with accu- 

 rately colored plates. 



Circumstances permitting, nearly every man or boy capable of holding a 

 gun is, or sometime will be, a sportsman. Many sportsmen are expert orni- 

 thologists, well acquainted with the names and habits of most of the birds, 

 but the great majority are not and often secure game which they or their 

 friends are unable to name. "American Game Birds," according to an old 

 sportsman who has hunted all kinds of game in all parts of our country, will 

 be a boon to sportsmen of all calibers, for "the novice has got to have it to 

 know what he is shooting, the man familiar with the birds of his locality will 

 want it in order to see what his brother sportsmen are shooting in other parts 

 of the country, and the old-timer will literally renew his youth as he turns 

 over the pages and sees portraits of his old bird acquaintances and recalls 

 the exact places and circumstances of their former capture." 



A book with this title might very properly commence with the most pop- 

 ular game birds and continue down the list to the least popular ones, but if 

 we placed the Ruffed Grouse or the Bob-white in the van, some sportsman 

 who believes there is no game but ducks would be sure to be offended. Since 

 there is a natural order of birds that is adopted by scientists the world over, 

 we have taken up our so-called game birds in this natural order, an arrange- 

 ment that brings the Mergansers or "Fish Ducks" to the fore, even though 

 they are not desirable as an article of food. We have included all the ducks, 

 even though many of them are not fit to eat, and also all the sandpipers, 

 even though many of them are so tiny that none but the veriest novice would 

 intentionally shoot them, for the reason that they are very commonly seen, 

 can be legally shot, and many are inadvertently taken before their identity 

 is discovered. 



Chester A. Reed. 



Worcester, Mass., August, rpia. 



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