Attractions of Bird Study

The only way really to know the birds is to study them in the field in their natural environment. Bird-study furnishes one of the most attractive hobbies. The pleasure that birds furnish in this way makes their aesthetic value quite as important as their economic value. Bird ac­tivities pass through so many changes in the course of a year that there is no opportunity for bird­study to become monotonous.

Then, too, bird-study takes one out into the fields, in the open, so that the setting in which bird-study is carried on is in itself attractive. While the individuals of a species change, the species remains about the same to us, and thus we come to associate with certain birds some of our pleasantest reminiscences. People and conditions in our former homes may change, but as we return to visit these scenes of our younger days, the bird life remains unchanged to welcome us and remind us of former days.

While special trips to the woods and water to look for birds offer many pleasant hours, yet, perhaps, the greatest pleasure from bird-study comes through the observation of the birds found around one's home, as one sits on the porch and watches the wrens and bluebirds rear their young in the houses pro­vided for them, or sees the robins and flickers that dot the lawn in search of insects, or hears the bird chorus that swells through the open window as one awakens in the early spring morn. The pleasure thus derived is the lasting, unconscious enjoyment that becomes an intimate part of one's life.

Birds also appeal to the-imagination on account of the annual cycle of life changes through which they pass over and over again year after year. It seems as though every spring birds were reborn and lived their lives over again, so that youth seems forever renewed with the return of the first birds.

There are all stages of attainment possible to suit every condition, from the identifying of a few birds in,the field up to the most careful study of bird hab­its, which may occupy one's entire time. One of the most satisfactory methods of studying bird life is to observe close at hand in one's yard the birds that may be attracted there by nesting-houses, foun­tains, and food.

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