CONTENTS 
PAGE 
Historical Review. ......... ix 
List of Abbreviations xii 
Plan of the Work xiii 
Introduction ......... 1 
Chapter I. — Why We Should Study Birds ... 1 
Chapter II. — A Word to the Beginner .... 3 
Finding and Naming Birds ...... 3 
The Equipment of the Field Student .... 9 
Collecting Birds, Their Nests and Eggs . . . .15 
American Ornithological Societies . . . . .23 
Current Ornithological Magazines . . . . .24 
Chapter III. — The Study of Birds in Nature . . .26 
The Distribution of Birds . . . . . .27 
The Migration of Birds , . . . . .32 
The Voice of Birds ....... 60 
The Nesting Season ....... 66 
The Plumage of Birds ....... 84 
The Food of Birds ....... 98 
General Activities of the Adult Bird .... 103 
THE BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA EAST OF THE NINE- 
TIETH MERIDIAN 118 
Key to Orders and Families . . . . . .118 
Field Key to Land Birds ...... 133 
I. Order Pygopodes: Diving Birds . . . .138 
1. Family Colymbidse: Grebes . . . .138 
2. Family Gaviidae: Loons . . . . .142 
3. Family Alcidae: Auks, Murres, and Puffins . 145 
(xxi) 
