Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/681

Rh, D. C. Sing Sing, N. Y., and Cambridge, Mass., while the water-birds of Long Island are treated specially. 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.

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. 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 recognize it at sight. After learning the names of its parts, its identity is simply a question of keys and descriptions.

If you would "name the birds without a gun" by all means first visit a museum, and, with text-book in hand, study those species which you have previously found are to be looked for near your home. This preliminary introduction will serve to ripen your acquaintance in the field. A good field-or opera-glass is absolutely indispensable. A strong opera-glass with a large eyepiece is most useful in the woods, while a field-glass is more serviceable in observing water-birds. Study your bird as closely as circumstances will permit, and write on the spot a comparative description Of its Size, the shape of its bill, tail, etc., and a detailed description of its colors. In describing form take a Robin, Chipping Sparrow, or any bird you know, which best serves the purpose, as a basis for comparison. A bird's bill is generally its most diagnostic external character. A sketch of it in your note-book will frequently give you a good clew to its owner's family. It is of the utmost importance that this description should be written in the field. Not only do our memories sometimes deceive us, but we really see nothing with exactness until we attempt to describe it. Haunts, actions, and notes should also be carefully recorded. This account is your "bird in the hand," and while you can not hope to identify it as easily as you could a specimen, you will rarely fail to learn its name, and experience will render each attempt less difficult than the preceding.

The best times of the day in which to look for birds are early morning and late afternoon. After a night of fasting and resting, birds are active and hungry. When their appetites are satisfied they rest quietly until afternoon, hunger again sending them forth in search of food.