SEC. Ill SUGGESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FIELD-WORK 23 



is sharp practice, even when birds are plentiful. I never knew a 

 person to average anywhere near it ; even during the " season " 

 such work cannot possibly be sustained. You may, of course, by a 

 murderous discharge into a flock, get a hundred or more in a 

 moment ; but I refer to collecting a fair variety of birds. You will 

 do very well if you average a dozen a day during the seasons. I 

 doubt whether any collector ever averaged as many the year around ; 

 it would be over four thousand specimens annually. The greatest 

 number I ever procured and prepared in one day was forty, and I 

 have not often gone over twenty. Even when collecting regularly 

 and assiduously, I am satisfied to average a dozen a day during the 

 migrations, and one-third or one-fourth as many the rest of the 

 year. Probably this implies the shooting of about one in five not 

 skinned for various reasons, as mutilation, decay, or want of time. 



Approaehing Birds. — There is little if any trouble in getting near 

 enough to shoot most birds. With notable exceptions, they are 

 harder to see when near enough, or to hit when seen ; particularly 

 small birds that are almost incessantly in motion. As a rule — and 

 a curious one it is — difficulty of approach is in direct ratio to the 

 size of the bird ; it is perhaps because large conspicuous birds are 

 objects of more general pursuit than the little ones you ordinarily 

 search for. The qualities that birds possess for self-preservation 

 may be called wariness in large birds, shyness in small ones. The 

 former make off knowingly from a suspicious object ; the latter fly 

 from anything that is strange to them, be it dangerous or not. This 

 is strikingly illustrated in the behaviour of small birds in the 

 wilderness, as contrasted with their actions about towns ; they are 

 more timid under the former circumstances than when grown 

 accustomed to the presence of man. It is just the reverse with a 

 hawk or raven, for instance ; in populous districts they spend much 

 of their time in trying to save their skins, while in a new country 

 they have not learned, like Indians, that a white man is " mighty 

 uncertain." In stealing on a shy bird, you will of course take ad- 

 vantage of any cover that may offer, as inequalities of the ground, 

 thick bushes, the trunks of trees ; and it is often worth while to 

 make a considerable d6tour to secure unobserved approach. I think 

 that birds are more likely, as a rule, to be frightened away by the 

 movements of the collector, than by his simple presence, however 

 near, and that they are more afraid of noise than of mere motion." 

 Crackling of twigs and rustling of leaves are sharp sounds, though 

 not loud ones ; you may have sometimes been surprised to find how 

 distinctly you could hear the movements of a horse or cow in 

 underbrush at some distance. Birds have sharp ears for such 

 sounds. Form a habit of stealthy movement ; it tells, in the long 

 run, in comparison with lumbering tread. There are no special 



