ae heard and then find a book, a museum, or sortie bird 
Lo student to help you out. You will find that you need to 
_ know the size, color, odd markings, song, and habits if yau_ 
oe : want to know the name of the creature that you saw. There | ‘ 
— are many books with pictures in the libraries, and almost 
every big city has a museum in either park, state college, __ 
or university, which you may visit when you are in doubt. | : : 
-_ Not long ago, a boy was met in a museum in a big store 
in Spokane, Washington. He had been out upon the hills 
fora tramp and had seen a wood midget that he did not 
_ know, and had come to this collection for help. A long talk 
was held about the many gray or brown birds that he had 
noted, and he cleared up several mysteries. He said: “There 
are such a lot of birds of about the same size and color that 
I have been pretty well mixed in trying to get acquainted 
with them, but I am beginning to know some of the ia 
- that they do, and I find that helps.” : 3 
= - Much interest was felt in a white robin cs saw ae a 
~ one of the cases, and they were told that it had been shot on 
a lawn in the city by a man who wanted his wife, who was’ 
out of town, to see it. He had noticed it feeding with the | 
| : other robins, its habits were as theirs, but it was a freak in 
its feather covering. The mounted bird was entirely white 
except for its pink glass eyes and a pinkish tinge on its | 
breast; and its bill, legs, feet, and even toenails were ghost- 
like. They wondered how the other robins felt about this 
oo odd creature and if they were sorry when it was killed. 
On that April trip to Spokane, down in a park beside 
the rushing river, which dashes madly over the falls in that 
beautiful city, a number of varieties of the birds that may 
- be called wood midgets were seen. One flock was swinging 2 
in the tall pines calling out different versions of their own © 
names ‘‘tsic-a-dee-dee”’ or “dee-dee-dee.” 
The visitor was anxious to see these chickadees of he . 
na eid wees, for Ridgway says that a separate colony of | 
the type form inhabits the area between the Rocky 
32. 
