nsed with. A copy of Wilson or Audubon, for reference
and to compare notes with, is invaluable. In lieu of these, access to
some large museum or collection would be a great help. In the
beginning, one finds it very difficult to identify a bird from any
verbal description. Reference to a colored plate, or to a stuffed
specimen, at once settles the matter. This is the chief value of
books; they are the charts to sail by; the route is mapped out, and
much time and labor are thereby saved. First find your bird; observe
its ways, its song, its calls, its flight, its haunts; then shoot it
(not ogle it with a glass), and compare it with Audubon. [footnote: My
later experiences have led me to prefer a small field-glass to a gun.]
In this way the feathered kingdom may soon be conquered.

The ornithologists divide and subdivide the birds into a great many
orders, families, genera, species etc., which, at first sight, are apt
to confuse and discourage the reader. But any interested person can
acquaint himself with most of our song-birds by keeping in mind a few
general divisions, and observing the characteristics of each. By far
the greater number of our land-birds are either warblers, vireos,
flycatchers, thrushes, or finches.

The warblers are, perhaps, the most puzzling. These are the true
Sylvia, the real wood-birds. They are small, very active, but feeble
songsters, and, to be seen, must be sought for. In passing through the
woods, most persons have a vague consciousness of slight chirping,
semi-musical sounds in the trees overhead. In most cases these sounds
proceed from the warblers. Throughout the Middle and Eastern States,
half a dozen species or so may be found in almost every locality, as
the redstart, the Maryland yellow-throat, the yellow warbler (not the
common goldfinch, with black cap, and black wings and tail), the
hooded warbler, the black and white creeping warbler; or others,
according to the locality and the character of the woods. In pine or
hemlock woods, one species may predominate; in maple or oak woods, or
in mountainous districts, another. The subdivisions of ground
warblers, the most common members of which are the Maryland
yellow-throat, the Kentucky warbler, and the mourning ground warbler,
are usually found in low, wet, bushy, or half-open woods, often on and
always near the ground. The summer yellowbird, or yellow warbler, is
not now a wood-bird at all, being found in orchards and parks, and
along