INTRODUCTION 



Ornithology. — The Science of or the Study of Birds is 

 Ornithology, and the student is Icnown as an Ornithologist. 

 By this term, however, we mean not one who only is able to 

 name or identify many species, but the student who knows 

 as well the functions and characters that form the basis of 

 the correct grouping of birds in their proper relation to one 

 another. It is not necessary or even desirable that all bird 

 students become expert ornithologists, for such a course often 

 requires the destruction of bird life. Only those who aim to 

 make ornithology their life work should undertake it, but 

 every one should be conversant with some of the basic prin- 

 ciples upon which depend the naming and placing of the 

 different species. 



WhjVT Is a Bird? — Birds belong to the class Avcs, which is 

 one of two groups maldng up the primary group of Sauropsida. 

 The other members of this group are classed as Reptilia, and 

 these two classes are linked together because the evidence all 

 points to the presumption that birds are all descended from a 

 reptilian ancestor. In slate formation in Bavaria have been 

 found several fossil remains of a bird which has been named 

 Archaeopteryx lithographica and which is very reptile-like in 

 form and structure. Birds are warm-blooded, oviparous 

 animals — that is, their young are hatched from eggs outside 

 the bodies of their parents. They are unique in that they 

 are the only animals possessing feathers. They always have 

 four limbs, of which the fore pair are wings, usuaUy capable 

 of sustaining the creature in flight by means of attached 

 feathers. Some animals and certain fish are also capable of 

 flight, but are sustained by a skin or membrane stretched 

 between the bony fingers. 



