A HANDBOOK OF THE 
BIRDS OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA 
INTRODUCTION 
WHY WE SHOULD STUDY BIRDS 
A WORD TO THE BEGINNER 
THE STUDY OF BIRDS IN NATURE 
CHAPTER I 
WHY WE SHOULD STUDY BIRDS 
Birds occupy a fourfold relation to man: an economic, esthetic, 
what may be termed a mythological or symbolic, and a scientific rela- 
tion. 
Birds are Nature’s most potent checks upon the undue increase 
of noxious insects and harmful rodents; they devour the seeds of weeds 
and act as scavengers. The more we learn of their food habits, the 
greater becomes the realization of our indebtedness to them, and 
economic ornithologists now agree that, without the services rendered 
by birds, the ravages of the animals they prey upon would render the 
earth uninhabitable. 
Birds, however, not only make life upon the globe possible, but 
they may add immeasurably to our enjoyment of it. Where in all 
animate nature shall we find so marvelous a combination of beauty 
of form and color, of grace and power of motion, of musical ability 
and intelligence, to delight our eyes, charm our ears and appeal to 
our imagination? 
To the birds’ mastery of the air, to their mysterious appearances 
and disappearances occasioned by migration, to the weird or peculiar 
character of their notes, as well as to their human-like characteristics, 
we may doubtless attribute the influence they have exerted on the mind 
of primitive man. This is shown in a thousand myths and legends 
investing the bird with supernatural powers, and in savage art and 
symbolism, and is reflected in the folk-lore of a later day. It is not 
surprising, therefore, that civilized man should devote especial atten- 
tion to creatures possessed of such unusual interest, studying their 
origin and relationships, their distribution in time and space, their 
migrations, their nesting habits, their form and color, and all the details 
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