REV. GEO. B. PRATT. 73 
AMATEUR ORNITHOLOGY. 
BY REV. GEO. B. PRATT, CHICAGO, 
In the year 1883 I began my ornithological work, with 
special attention to the migration of birds in the valley of 
the Mississippi River at Hastings, Minn., about 20 miles 
south of St. Paul. The first spring arrivals of birds as in- 
dividuals, then in collective bodies, were my especial duties 
of observation, I had previously seen in the St. Paul 
Pioneer Press an advertisement, or more properly a call, by 
Prof. W. W. Cooke, then living in Wisconsin, for observers in 
the valley of the Mississippi. My first thought was, “ Why ! 
you don’t know anything about birds. Why take this up ? 
You have had no experience.” The idea was attractive and 
worked upon me considerably; so I finally decided, and 
wrote to Prof. Cooke that I would take the job for that local- 
ity. I am reminded now, when thinking of my ignorance at 
that time (and let me say that much of that ignorance has 
never ceased) of the man who was asked to teach a class in 
zodlogy at a private school, and who agreed to do it; and 
then went home and hunted in his dictionary to see what 
the word “ zodlogy ”’ meant. 
I kept up the work, along with others whom I occasion- 
ally met in Red Wing and Lake City, towns on the river, 
until Prof. Cooke finished the object he had in view, for 
which I had sent him semi-annual reports; after which I 
transferred my reports to the Smithsonian Institution at 
Washington. In 1885, 1 removed to Oak Park, Ill. Since 
that time, with the exception of two or three years past, I have 
