mention," for both of them are needful factors in the
dissemination of knowledge.

You will want to know where a first-rate bird manual can be obtained.
It affords me sincere pleasure to recommend two works of the kind that
cover the entire avian field for residents of the United States. They
are new, up-to-date, and convenient. To those who live east of the
Mississippi River I would commend Mr. Frank M. Chapman's "Handbook of
Birds of Eastern North America." The best praise I can bestow upon
this book is to assure you that it will give entire satisfaction as a
handbook. Happily another manual (Mrs. Florence M. Bailey's "Handbook
of Birds of the Western United States") was recently issued, treating
the avifauna west of the Mississippi just as thoroughly as Mr.
Chapman's work deals with that of the eastern part of our country.
Both books contain lavish illustrations by expert and accurate bird
artists--a feature that is invaluable in the work of identification.
They possess a further advantage in not being too large to be carried
with you in your excursions afield, enabling you to name each feathered
stranger on the spot.

Should you desire a single volume that will help you to identify any
bird you may meet on our continent, I would urge you to secure the
latest revised edition of Dr. Elliott Coues's "Key to North American
Birds." It is fully illustrated, thoroughly scientific and up-to-date
in the matter of classification, and yet not too technical for
practical use. This book is too bulky to be carried with you to the
haunts of the birds, but it may be used in this way: Note carefully the
markings and other peculiarities of each new bird you meet; then, as
soon as you return home, while all the circumstances are fresh in your
memory, consult your "key" and make sure, if possible, of the identity
of all your "finds."

Mr. Robert Ridgway, one of the foremost ornithologists of our country,
is now preparing a great work which is worthy of the highest praise.
It is entitled "The Birds of North and Middle America," and is the most
comprehensive work yet undertaken relative to the avifauna of the
entire North American Continent, giving a large amount of scientific
data respecting all the species. After its completion it will enable
the student to identify every bird known to science from the Isthmus of
Panama to the far North and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. At this
writing two volumes have been issued. The