Learn How to Identify Birds

The first step in bird-study is the identification of birds. Learning a bird's name is much like an introduction to a person; it is a means by which a new friendship may be formed. But there is a great deal of pleasure in merely learning to name the birds.

Many people will never care to go beyond this point in bird-study. The ability to name the birds from year to year as they return in the spring is one of the chief pleasures in bird-study, and gives a sort of feeling of friendship for the birds. But in the process of learning the names of birds, one of necessity learns many interesting things about them. There is a sort of fascination to see if one can learn to name all the birds of a locality. Itserves as an incentive from year to year, as one recognizes the old friends, to try each year to make a few new friends, as well as to get better acquainted with the old.

In order to name the birds, the first essential is a bird book. There is a great variety of books on the market adapted to every requirement. For the purpose of identification the most helpful books are those that contain colored pictures. For a beginner in bird-study, who knows only a few birds, Reed's "Land Birds" is well adapted. This contains a small colored picture of every land bird in the eastern United States, accompanied by a brief description of the bird. This is a small book and can easily be carried in the field. Mr. Reed has a companion volume entitled "Water Birds," on the same general plan. These books cost from seventy ­five cents to one dollar and a quarter, according to the binding.

After one has made a beginning and can name twenty-five or thirty birds, an excellent book for general reference is Chapman's "Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America." This contains a de­tailed description of all the birds of eastern North America, and about one hundred pages of reading matter about bird habits. Another helpful book for. identification is Ralph Hoffmann's "Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York." Provided with these books one may hope to name most of the common birds. These and other bird books may be obtained through bookstores or through the National Association of Audubon So­cieties, 1974 Broadway, New York City.

If one has access to a museum with a collection of birds, the study of the specimens there will be a great help in identifying the birds found in the field, but pictures may serve as a satisfactory substitute. Separate colored plates of birds may be obtained of the Association of Audubon Societies, just men­tioned, at two cents each. The pictures of about ninety birds have been issued so far and new ones are being made each year.

A pair of opera-or field-glasses is a wonderful help to bird-study. Some birds are easily frightened, and often it is not possible to approach near enough to see them distinctly without glasses. Many of our common birds have become accustomed to man and allow one to approach them closely, but glasses add much pleasure to bird-study and render it much more effective and satisfactory. A very good glass, magnifying three diameters, may be obtained for six dollars from the National Association of Audu­bon Societies.

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