Preface 
most birds possess some anatomical peculiarity, 
such as a crest, a long tail, long legs, etc. 
Not a few have some easily recognisable habit, 
such as a peculiar call or manner of flight. 
Thus most birds will appear in at least two 
of my classes, and so should be easily identified 
by a process of elimination. When the reader 
thinks that he has located a bird he should 
turn it up in the descriptive list, which com- 
poses Part II of this book, and this will serve 
to confirm or correct him in his identification. 
Thus, to take a very easy example, the ob- 
server while out walking sees a white bird with 
a long tail, and a black crested head. Looking 
through the lists of birds under (1) those having 
long tails ; (2) those having a crest ; (3) those 
mainly white, he will find that the Paradise 
Flycatcher is the only bird that appears in 
all three lists. Its number in the descriptive 
list is (57). A perusal of entry No. 57 will 
confirm the diagnosis, and indicate where 
illustrations of the bird are to be found. 
I venture to hope that this little book will 
enable any person to learn in a few weeks to 
identify nearly all the common birds of his 
station. 
The descriptions given in Part II of the 
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