ome kind when a Redstart or
Chestnut-sided Warbler appears. Once identify a Barn Swallow coursing
through the air, and a long {16} stride is made toward the
identification of the Cliff or Tree Swallow when one swings into view.
The flight of the Flicker, the Goldfinch, the Nighthawk, and the
Sparrow Hawk, is so characteristic in each case that I have often been
able to name the bird for a student upon being told its approximate
size and the character of its flight. Who can see a Wild Duck
swimming, or a Gull flying, without at once referring it to the group
of birds to which it belongs? Thus the first step is taken toward
learning the names of the species, and the grouping of them into
families.

_Artificial Cover in Hiding._--When studying the larger or the shyer
species it is sometimes well to hide one's self from view with whatever
articles are at hand that resemble the natural surroundings. This may
be done by covering with hay if in a field, or by holding some leafy
branches about you if in the woods.

On a lonely island in Pamlico Sound I once got some fishermen to cover
me with sand and sea-shells, and in that way managed to get a close
view of {17} the large flocks of Cormorants that came there to roost
every night. The island was small and perfectly barren, and any other
method of attempted concealment would have failed utterly.

Another time, while crouched among some boulders watching for a flock
of Gambel's Quails to come to a water-hole in the Santa Catalina
Mountains of Arizona, a Canyon Wren alighted on my back, for I was
covered with an old tent fly so spotted with mildew that it closely
resembled the neighbouring rocks. A moment later it flew to a point
scarcely more than a foot from my face, when, after one terrified look,
it departed.

[Illustration: A ferocious young eagle]

_The Umbrella Blind._--A device now often used by ornithologists is the
umbrella blind, which is easy to construct. Take a stout umbrella,
remove the handle, and insert the end in a hollow brass rod five feet
long. Sharpen the rod at the other end and thrust it into the ground.
Over the raised umbrella throw a dark green cloth cut and sewed so as
to make a curtain that will reach the ground all round. A {19}
draw-string will make it fit over the top. Get inside, cut a few
vertical observation slits six inches long, and your work is done.
Erect this within ten feet of a nest, and leave it alone for a few
hours. T