SUGGESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOE FIELD-WORK. 
15 
(as too often happens), throw away according to size, other things heing equal. Given only 
so many cuhic inches or feet, eliminate the few large birds which take np the space that would 
contain fifty or a hundred different little ones. If you have a fine large bald eagle or pelican, 
for instance, throw it away first, and follow it with your ducks, geese, etc. In this way, the 
bulk of a large miscellaneous collection may be reduced one half, perhaps, with very little 
depreciation of its actual value. The same principle may be extended to other collections in 
natural history (excepting fossils, which are always weighty, if not also bulky) ; very few bird- 
skins, indeed, being as valuable contributions to science as, for example, a vial of miscella- 
neous insects that occupies no more room may prove to be. 
What is " A Good Day's Work ? " — Fifty birds shot, their skins preserved, and obser- 
vations recorded, is a very good day's work; it is sharp practice, even when birds are plentiful. 
I never knew a person to average anywhere near it; even during the season " sucli work 
cannot possibly be sustained. You may, of course, by a murderous discharge into a flock, 
as of blackbirds or reedbirds, 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 a7id 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. 
Approaching 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 
ivariness in large birds, shyness in small ones. The former make oft' knowingly from a sus- 
picious object; the latter fly from anything that is strange to them, be it dangerous or not. 
This is strikingly illustrated in the behavior of small birds in the wilderness, as contrasted with 
their actions about towns ; singular as it may seem, they are more timid under the former cir- 
cumstances 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 advantage of any 
cover that may ofi'er, as inequalities of the ground, thick bushes, the trunks of trees ; and it is 
often worth while to make a considerable detour 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, hoM^ever near, and that they are more afraicl 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 move- 
ments 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 precautions to be taken in shooting through high open 
forest ; you have only to saunter along with your eyes in the tree-tops. It is ordinarily the 
easiest and on the whole the most renumerative path of the collector. In traversing fields and 
meadows move briskly, your principal object being to flush birds out of the grass ; and as most 
of your shots will be snap ones, keep in readiness for instant action. Excellent and varied 
