While strolling through a piece of woodland, or perhaps along the marsh
or seashore, we see a bird, a strange bird—one we never saw before.
Instantly, our curiosity is aroused, and the question arises, “What is
it?” There is the bird! How can we find out what kind it is? The
Ornithologist of a few years ago had but one course open to him, that is
to shoot the bird, take it home, then pore through pages of
descriptions, until one was found to correspond with the specimen.
Obviously, such methods cannot be pursued today, both humane and
economical reasons prohibiting. We have but one alternative left us: We
must make copious notes of all the peculiarities and markings of the
bird that is before us. On our return home, we get down our bird books,
and there are many excellent ones. After carefully looking through the
whole library, we find that, although many of our books are well
illustrated, none of them has the picture of what we seek, so we adopt
the tactics of the “Old-time” Ornithologist, before mentioned, and pore
over pages of text, until finally we know what our bird was. It is for
just such emergencies as this—to identify a bird when you see it, and
where you see it, that this little pocket “Bird Guide” is prepared. May
it be the medium for saving many of today’s seekers for “bird truths”
from the many trials and tribulations willingly encountered, and hard
and thorny roads gladly traveled by the author in his quest for
knowledge of bird ways.