study, but are always about us, and even a slight familiarity with them will be of value long after school days are over.
Popular interest must precede the desire for purely
technical knowledge. The following pages are not addressed
to past masters in ornithology, but to those who
desire a general knowledge of bird-life and some acquaintance
with our commoner birds. The opening
chapters of this book briefly define the bird, its place in
Nature and its relation to man, and outline the leading
facts in its life-history. The concluding chapters present
the portraits, names, and addresses of upward of one
hundred familiar birds of eastern North America, with
such information concerning their comings and goings
as will lead, I trust, to their being found at home.
After this introduction the student may be left on the threshold, with the assurance that his entrance to the innermost circles of bird-life depends entirely on his own patience and enthusiasm.
Frank M. Chapman.
New York city, January, 1897.
