4 
HOW TO IDENTIFY BIRDS 
their habits is to take a sheltered seat in some favored locality and 
become a part of the background. Your passage through the woods 
is generally attended by sufficient noise to warn birds of your coming 
long before you see them. They are then suspicious and ill at ease, 
but secrete yourself near some spot loved by birds, and it may be your 
privilege to learn the secrets of the forest. In this connection I cannot 
too highly recommend the observation blind described beyond. Ade- 
quate natural cover cannot always be found and at best, rarely permits 
of much freedom of movement. In it, one therefore becomes so cramped 
and tired that what should be a pleasure becomes hard labor. Where- 
as, I have passed as much as eight consecutive hours in a blind without 
undue fatigue; and, it may be added that, although I was in an open 
field only twenty feet from a Meadowlark’s nest, the birds had not 
the slightest suspicion of my proximity.* 
How to Identify Birds . — Whether your object be to study birds as a 
scientist or simply as a lover of Nature, the first step is the same — you 
must learn to know them. This problem of identification has been 
given up in despair by many would-be ornithologists. We can neither 
pick, press, net, nor impale birds; and here the botanist and the ento- 
mologist have a distinct advantage. Even if we have the desire to 
resort to a gun, its use is not always possible. But with patience and 
practice the identification of birds is comparatively an easy matter, 
and in the end you will name them with surprising ease and certainty. 
There is generally more character in the flight of a bird than there is 
in the gait of a man. Both are frequently indescribable but perfectly 
diagnostic, and you learn to recognize bird friends as you do human 
ones — by experience. 
If you confine your studies to one locality, probably not more than 
one-third of the species described in this volume will come within the 
field of your observation. To aid you in learning which species should 
be included in this third, the paragraphs on Range are followed by a 
statement of the bird’s standing at several localities distributed through- 
out the Eastern United States. Take the list of birds from the point 
nearest your home as an index of those you may expect to find. This 
may be abridged for a given season by considering the times of the 
year at which a bird is present. Often you can secure a published list 
of the birds of your state, county, or immediate vicinity, and publica- 
tions of this nature are of such exceptional value and interest to the 
local student that a list of the more important ones has been prepared 
as an appendix to this edition of the “Handbook.” 
After this slight preparation, you may take to the field with a much 
clearer understanding of the situation. Two quite different ways of 
identifying birds are open to you. Either you may shoot them, or study 
them through a field- or opera-glass. (See beyond, under Collecting.) 
A bird in the hand is a definite object whose structure and color can be 
studied to such advantage that in most cases you will afterward recog- 
*See “Camps and Cruises,” pp. 15-19. 
