HOW TO STUDY BIRDS 



denly dash after an insect or fly to another lookout branch. 

 Warblers are very vivacious, flitting about so rapidly that 

 it is often difficult to keep sight of them. Vireos are sedate 

 in their manners but carefully peer under every leaf and twig. 

 The Goldfinch bounds through the air with a twitter at each 

 dip in his flight. The Flicker is often found on the ground, 

 which is unusual for birds of the woodpecker family. Nearly 

 every bird has some oddities that will positively identify or 

 assist in its identification. The student should strive to find 

 out what these oddities are. 



Every season is an open one for the hunter with a bird glass, 

 but during fall is the most difficult time to identify what one 

 sees, for there is such an abundance of birds, most of which 

 are young, in different plumages from their parents, and many 

 kinds being very similar. At this season, too, many adult 

 birds have changed their brilliant and distinctive clothes for 

 plain, dull-colored ones, and few of them sing at all. 



The camera is a very valuable acquisition to one's outfit 

 if it is correctly used. Many excellent pictures of the nest 

 and eggs and of the haunts of various species of birds can be 

 secured. But the greatest of care must be used to disturb 

 neither the birds nor the nests any more than is necessary. 

 The subject of Bird Photography is too extensive to be in- 

 cluded in this volume. Books by Rev. Herbert K. Job, 

 Frank M. Chapman, William L. Finley, and others, and 

 "Camera Studies of Wild Birds in Their Homes," by the 

 author of this volume, go into the subject fufly. 



BIRDS OF A COLOR 



Color lists, grouping various common species under their 

 most conspicuous colors, are often quite helpful, although 

 such lists are not as necessary with a volume like the present, 

 that pictures all the birds in colors. But we will present 

 such a list, as some may like to make use of it. It is to be 

 understood that the birds are grouped under their most con- 

 spicuous colors, not necessarily the predominating color, 

 for a small patch of red, yellow, or blue would be the con- 



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