
26 SUGGESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FIELD-WORK. 
readily undertake to secure a greater variety of birds in the nine 
weeks above specified than in all the rest of the year; for in that 
time would be found, not only all the permanent residents, but 
nearly all the migrants, and almost all the summer visitants ;. 
while the number of individual birds that might be taken ex- 
ceeds, by quite as much, the number of those procurable in the - 
same length of time at any other season. Mutatis mutandis, 
it is the same everywhere in this country. Look out then, for 
‘the season ;” work all through it at a rate you could not pos- 
sibly sustain the year around; and make hay while the sun 
shines. b. Time of day. Early in the morning and late in 
the afternoon are the best times for birds. There is a mysteri- 
ous something in these diurnal crises that sets bird-life astir, , 
over and above what is explainable by the simple fact that they 
are the transition periods from repose to activity, or the reverse. 
Subtile meteorological changes occur; various delicate instru- 
ments used in physicists’ researches are sometimes inexplicably: 
disturbed ; diseases have often their turning point for better 
or worse; people are apt to be born or die; and the suscep- 
tible organisms of birds manifest various excitements. What- 
ever the operative influence, the fact is, birds are particularly 
lively at such hours. In the dark, they rest— most of them 
do: at noonday, again, they are comparatively still; between 
these times they are passing to or from their feeding grounds 
or roosting places ; they are foraging for food, they are singing ; 
at any rate, they are in motion. Many migratory birds (among 
them warblers, etc.) perform their journeys by night; just ‘at 
daybreak they may be seen to descend from the upper regions, 
rest awhile, and then move about briskly, singing and search- 
ing for food. Their meal taken, they recuperate by resting till 
towards evening: feed again and are off for the night. If you 
have had some experience, don’t you remember what a fine spurt 
you made early that morning?—how many unexpected shots 
offered as you trudged home belated that evening? Now I am 
no fowl, and have no desire to adopt the habits of the hen-yard ; 
I have my opinion of those who like the world before it is 
aired; I think it served the worm right for getting up, when 



