HOW TO NAME THE BIRDS.
Read the Synopsis of Bird Families[1] to gain an idea of their groupings, and if you fail to locate your bird in this way go through the Key[2] very slowly, not jumping hastily at conclusions, but following every reasonable clue. It is impossible to make such a key absolutely trustworthy, when it is necessarily based upon the more superficial qualities, and is arranged to guide those who rely upon impressions of colour gained from a bird, perhaps many feet distant.
In condensing the attributes of each bird into a reference table to precede its biography, its length in inches is given as a means of comparison, especially in referring to the illustrations; for in adapting the bird portraits from many sources it has been impossible to grade them according to a mathematical scale. In these tables I have endeavoured to give only such broad descriptions of plumage as shall be recognizable with a field-glass, noting the difference in colour-ing between male and female when it is at all marked, and giving when possible the accentuated value of the song and call notes in syllables. Not that any literal meaning may be attributed to them, but that the sound of these syllables, when repeated aloud, may aid in identifying the song with the singer. Critics who do not understand the motive of this syllabication, call it nonsense, and consider it merely a sentimentalist's attempt to make the birds talk. I only know that it has been a great help to me, and that it has aided many people who depend even more upon the ear than the eye in their study of birds. Thoreau and Emerson understood it thoroughly, and Burroughs has formulated much of the language, so that it does not lack champions.
The seasons of bird migration, or residence, are in accordance with records of this part of New England (southern Connectieut), both from the notes of Rev. James Linsley, Mr. C. K. Averill of Bridgeport, and others, and also from my own diaries. Allowance must therefore be made by those living further north or south, as in the spring migration birds will arrive in Delaware two weeks earlier than in
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