INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS.
or scientifie research plausibly, with the apology that the end and aim is knowledge. Are not the lives of hundreds of song-birds a high price for the gain of a doubtful new species, which only causes endless discussion as to whether it really is a species or merely a freak? One ornithologist proudly makes the record that, in the space of less than three weeks, he shot fifty-eight Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, to ascertain their average article of diet, and this slaughter was in the breeding season! There is also the stubbornly ignorant farmer, who measures only by dollars and cents and sets his hand against all birds, because half a dozen kinds in the excess of their friendliness invite themselves to supper in his berry patch, and think that no perch is so suitable for their morning singing as a cherry tree in June.
Now is the time to study all the best attributes of bird life, the period when we may judge the birds by our own standard, finding that their code of manners and morality nearly meets our own. We see them as individuals having the same diversity of character as people of different nations, and it is in the homes that we can best see their ruling instincts. Each bird now has a mind of his own and devel. ops his own ideas. He is master of many arts.
If you wish to see all this, habit yourself in sober colours, wear soft, well-tried shoes, and something on your head that shall conceal rather than betray your presence, — Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller's leaf-covered hat is a clever invention. Do you realize how large you appear to the bird, whose eyes have very many times the magnifying power of our own?
Walk gently but naturally, do not step on dry branches, but at the same time avoid a mincing gait. Have you not noticed in the sick-room, that a light easy tread is far less distracting than a fussy tiptoeing? Do not make sudden motions, especially of the arms,— a writer has said that birds are much more afraid of man's arms than of man himself.
Go through the lanes where the bushes hedge and the trees arch, thread between the clumps of crabs and briars that dot waste pastures, watch every tree and vine in the garden, skirt the hay meadows (their owners will hardly let
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