How TO Learn a Bird's Name 



To the student who desires to prepare himself for his work afield such 

 a Study may well come before he attempts to name the birds. But 

 where the chief end in view is to learn a bird's name, the more technical 

 side of the subject may be deferred. In any event, it should not be 

 neglected. This orderly arrangement of knowledge will not only be 

 practical benefit in one's future labors but it will bring with it that sense 

 of satisfaction which accompanies the assuraiice that we know what we 

 know. 



As one learns to recognize bird after bird it is an admirable plan to 

 classify systematically one's list of bird acquaintances under their proper 

 Orders and Families. These may be learned at once from the systematic 

 table at the end of the book, where the numbers which precede each 

 species are arranged serially, and hence systematically. 



In some instances, as an aid to identification in the field, descriptions 

 of birds' notes have been included. It is not supposed that these de 

 scriptions will convey an adequate idea of a bird's song to a person who 

 has never heard it. but it is hoped that they may occasionally lead to 

 the recognition of calls or songs when they are heard. 



An adequate method of transcribing bird's notes has as yet to be de- 

 vised and the author realizes only too well how unsatisfactory the data 

 here presented will appear to the student. It is hoped, however, that 

 they may sometimes prove of assistance in naming birds in life. 



As has been said before, the aim of this volume is to help students to 

 learn the names of our birds in their haunts. But we should be doing 

 scant justice to the possibilities of bird study: if, even by silence, we 

 should imply that they ended with the learning to know the bird. This 

 is only the beginning of the quest which may bring us. Into close 

 intimacy with the secrets of nature. The birds' haunts and food, their 

 seasons and times of coming and going; their songs and habits during 

 courtship, their nest-building, egg-laying, incubating and care of their 

 young, these and a hundred other subjects connected with their lives 

 may claim our attention and by increasing our knowledge of bird-life, 

 add to our love of birds. 



