82 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
biers, sparrows and thrushes flowed 
across my path. The glass was in 
constant use, and bagged its full quota 
of fine specimens daily. 
1 find that for the season (including 
five or six new ones bagged from the 
car window, and in Central Park, N. 
Y., and in Fairmount Park, Phila¬ 
delphia , I have a list of 118 differ¬ 
ent varieties of birds. A very small 
percentage of these were gleaned 
from the hedge rows of the country 
side. A few water birds on the shore 
of Lake Michigan only two blocks 
away), while the great majority of the 
little beauties looked in upon me at my 
manuscript, where I sat there day 
after day as 1 sit this minute, in my 
north study window. 
My glass lay at my side and came 
to my face in a flash and I got a view 
of an animated patch of gold, in the 
little black cap, a flash of fire as the 
red-start came and went among the 
leaves, a very busy little fellow in¬ 
deed, or the mingled lights of the red 
and yellow of the black burman; this 
interruption only seeming to add to 
the pleasure of my work, and never 
decreasing the days’ output of work 
done. I would rather conclude, that 
the days recording such frequent in¬ 
trusions of my little neighbors, were 
the days when I did my best work. 
The most thorough student of birds 
personally known to me, makes most 
of his observations within the limits ot 
a city, and very largely from his 
study window and about his own 
lawn. 
I do not advocate the confinement 
of the study to these narrow 1 mits. 
The chief good to be gained by the 
study of birds is the out-of-doors 
contact with life, the hand to hand 
acquaintance with this very beautiful 
world of ours. We are apt to forget 
that there is an out-of-doors. Life is 
doubled in its capacity for the one who 
lives with God out in the field ana 
woods. 1 write this to show the op¬ 
portunity of the one who is shut in, it 
only the habit of observation is 
to rmed. 
Start a Lst this season, start it to¬ 
day. After you have made your sec¬ 
ond list, and the list is a stimulant to 
the beginner, you wall have become so 
well acquainted with the common birds 
of your path, that you will see ana 
know them all. Their notes, their 
changes of feathering, their methods 
of housekeeping, all these things so 
full of interest and pleasure to the stu¬ 
dent, will take their places, in your 
mind and a new door to a bigger world 
will have opened to you—a world in 
which God lives and moves ancl 
speaks. 
B. Grackee. 
Mazomanie, Wis., March 31, 1911. 
Dear Wayside:—- 
I have seen a great many robins 
this spring. Over at our neighbor’s 
house there is a large hill and 1 have 
seen more robins than I ever saw since 
1 belonged to the Audubon society. 
I have also seen the blue bird, the 
downy woodpecker and redwinged 
blackbird. 
We are going to have vacation for 
two weeks. My friend and I are then 
eoin«' for a walk in the woods. 
In the winter many doves, bluejays 
and sparrows were looking around for 
food. I am very fond of the dear 
little songsters. 
Yours truly, 
Genevieve Hottmann. 
