OF THE UNITED STATES OOd 



professionally or otherwise, may be naturalists, to study 

 more closely the habits of our common birds. It is a mar- 

 vel to me sometimes how very imperfect our knowledge is in 

 such matters. I have found ornithologists of repute who will 

 aver that "our Oven-bird never builds except upon a sidehill"; 

 the entrance to its nest " always faces south." and that the bird 

 by structure is nothing more nor less than a big American war- 

 bler — and so on. Frequent and carefully recorded observations 

 are the only methods known to me by means of which such myths 

 as these may be dissipated, and the truth introduced in their 

 place. 



