10 Bulletin of the 



SOME HINTS FOR BIRD STUDY. 



PROF. WALTER B. BARROWS. 



Little progress in bird study can be made — in fact, real bird 

 study can hardly be said to begin — until the student has become 

 somewhat familiar with most of our common birds, until he can 

 recognize and name correctly at sight the males at least of sixty 

 or seventy species. Of course, it will take some trouble to get 

 this amount of knowledge, but it must be obtained before better 

 work can be done. You can make no "original observations" of 

 any value, impart no information worth considering, publish no 

 "records" which will command attention, until you really know 

 all of our common birds when you see them. Some may be 

 "seen" well enough for recognition half a mile away, others must 

 be watched patiently at a distance of but two or three yards, and 

 a few may have to be killed, measured, and compared with de- 

 scriptions or specimens before identification is possible. 



For this purpose use every means at your disposition — books, 

 pictures, museum specimens, correspondence with friends or with 

 naturalists whom you have never met. Help yourself as far as 

 practicable, for your own good, but do not be afraid or ashamed 

 to ask help from others when you have made an honest effort and 

 are not satisfied ; get the facts somehow. Thus knowledge will 

 come with experience, and eventually you will name nine out of 

 ten living birds at sight, and the tenth one after a little patient 

 watching and thinking. 



The largest and most valuable part of the unknown facts about 

 Michigan birds relate to the common species. "Rare" birds are 

 always interesting and should not be slighted, but there are 

 thousands of things waiting to be discovered about our common- 

 est birds. Fifteen years ago I began studying the common Crow, 

 and for four years gave almost my whole time to that one species. 

 Much was learned, but much more remained to be learned, and 

 although I have been at it ever since, not a season passes which 

 does not add some new fact to my knowledge of that wonderful 

 bird. 



Among the facts which we want to know are all the common 

 names by which any bird is known. Of course we all know that 

 the Downy Woodpecker is not a sapsucker, although often sc 

 called, but I was amazed recently to find that the Nuthatches 

 are commonly called sapsuckers in some parts of the state. In 



