Many excellent standard works upon birds are available. When I was a
youngster I wore out three volumes of Dr. Frank M. Chapman’s
_Bird-Life_; I devoured the reading matter, cut up the pictures, and
studied the technique of the artist who had painted them. By the time I
had destroyed the third copy of this helpful volume, I knew the birds
treated there pretty well. Chapman’s _Handbook of Birds of Eastern North
America_ is a desk-side companion today. The little pocket volumes
called _Bird Guides_, by C. A. Reed, are helpful; but the color-plates
in them have been used so many times that they are worn out, with the
result that the colors are often very misleading. Dr. B. H. Warren’s
volumes on the _Birds of Pennsylvania_, published in 1888 and 1890,
contain much of value and interest, including a series of colored
pictures which always elicit praise. These volumes, while interesting
historically, do not meet the needs of the Pennsylvania bird student
today, in the light of present knowledge. The excellent state
publications _Birds of New York_ (Eaton) and _Birds of Massachusetts_
(Forbush), are magnificently illustrated and are well worth possessing;
they treat of many of the species found in Pennsylvania. Books on
general aspects of ornithology which you will find useful are: Wetmore’s
_The Migrations of Birds_, Ball’s _Bird Biographies_, Blanchan’s _Bird
Neighbors_ and _Birds That Hunt and Are Hunted_, Chapman’s _What Bird is
That?_, Coues’ _Key to North American Birds_, the National Geographic
Society’s _Book of Birds_, and Forbush’s _Useful Birds and Their
Protection_.