Alabama, 19 13. 41 



and claim acquaintance with that number of birds-species may 

 justly claim to be well informed on our birds. Because birds are 

 more common than quadrupeds, bird-books are also more common, 

 and now the most of them are beautifully illustrated. The road to 

 ornithology is now strewn with flowers, and the rough places have 

 been made smooth. 



The Vastness of the Bird-World. — Go where you will upon 

 this earth — save in the great deserts — some members of the bird 

 world will either bear you company, or greet you as you advance. 

 Some will sing to cheer you, others will interest and amuse you by 

 the oddities of their forms and ways. On the mountain back-bone 

 of the continent, you will meet the spruce-grouse, the raven, and 

 the mountain- jay. In the foothills and on the great sage-brush 

 plains, the stately sage-grouse and the garrulous magpie still break 

 the monotony. 



In the fertile regions of abundant rain, bird-life is — or rather 

 was once — bewildering in its variety. In the tropics, the gorgeous 

 colors and harsh voices of the birds remind you that you are 

 fairly within another world. In mid-ocean, the stormy petrel causes 

 you to wonder how it survives the storms. On the bald mountains 

 of Alaska, or the barren shores of the Arctic Ocean, the snow- 

 white ptarmigan may be the means of saving you from death by 

 starvation, and when you discover new lands in the mysterious and 

 forbidding waters of the Antarctic, the huge and helpless emperor 

 penguin will be there to greet you. 



The greatest wonders of bird-life are the immense variety of 

 its forms, and the manner in which the members of the various 

 groups have been equipped to perform so many functions in the 

 economy of life. It seems as if Nature has undertaken to furnish 

 birds for every portion of the globe, and provide food and shelter 

 for each in its own place. This is why different birds fly, wade, 

 swim, dive, scratch, run and climb. 



—Dr. Wm. T. Hornady. 



