Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/683

Rh as a cat. Furthermore, go alone and keep the sun at your back—two apparently unrelated but equally important bits of advice.

The collector generally has the instincts of a hunter, and practice will develop them. The "squeak" is one of his most valuable aids. It is made by placing the lips to the back of the hand or finger and kissing vigorously. The sound produced bears some resemblance to the cries of a wounded or young bird. In the nesting season its utterance frequently creates much excitement in the bird world, and at all times it is useful as a means of drawing bush-or reed-haunting species from their retreats. One may enter an apparently deserted thicket, and, after a few minutes' squeaking, find himself surrounded by an anxious or curious group of its feathered inhabitants.

The observer of birds will find that by far the best way to study 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.

During the year the bird life of temperate and boreal regions fluctuates with the changing seasons. Birds may thus be classed in the following groups according to the manner of their occurrence: Permanent residents are birds found in one locality throughout the year. Summer residents come from the south in the spring, rear their young, and leave in the fall. Winter visitants come from the north in the fall, pass the winter, and leave in the spring. Transient visitants pass through a given place in migrating to and from their summer homes north of it. Accidental visitants are birds which have lost their way. They are generally young and inexperienced, and are usually found in the fall.

The best time of the year to begin studying birds is in the winter, when the bird population of temperate regions is at the minimum. The problem of identification is thus reduced to its simplest terms, and should be mastered before spring introduces new elements.