The Project Gutenberg EBook of A-Birding on a Bronco, by Florence A. Merriam

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Title: A-Birding on a Bronco

Author: Florence A. Merriam

Release Date: August 11, 2010 [EBook #33410]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO ***

Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Emmy and the
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Books by Florence A. Merriam.

BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. In Riverside Library
for Young People. Illustrated. 16mo, 75 cents.

MY SUMMER IN A MORMON VILLAGE. 16mo, $1.00.

A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO. Illustrated. 16mo, $1.25.

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
BOSTON AND NEW YORK.

[Illustration: MOUNTAIN BILLY UNDER THE GNATCATCHER'S OAK]

A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO

BY FLORENCE A. MERRIAM

I do invite you ... to my house ...
after, we'll a-birding together.
SHAKESPEARE.

_ILLUSTRATED_

[Illustration: The Riverside Press.]

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1896

Copyright, 1896,

By FLORENCE A. MERRIAM.

_All rights reserved._

_The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A._

Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.

PREFATORY NOTE.

THE notes contained in this book were taken from March to May, 1889, and
from March to July, 1894, at Twin Oaks in southern California. Twin Oaks
is the post-office for the scattered ranch-houses in a small valley at
the foot of one of the Coast Ranges, thirty-four miles north of San
Diego, and twelve miles from the Pacific.

As no collecting was done, there is doubt about the identity of a few
species; and their names are left blank or questioned in the list of
birds referred to in the text. In cases where the plumage of the two
sexes is practically identical, and only slight mention is made of the
species, the sexes have sometimes been arbitrarily distinguished in the
text.

Several of the articl