introduction to every chief division; and last, and highly
important, colored pictures of all the species and many of the
geographical varieties. What more can the bird student desire for
purposes of identification? While the other manuals give fuller
descriptions of habits, songs, etc., and need not, therefore, be
superseded by this volume, yet frankness forces us to say that if the
student, and especially the beginner, cannot afford to buy more than
one bird book, the Chapman-Reed "Color Key" is the one to get. It is
of a convenient size for carrying afield, so that a feathered stranger
can be identified on the spot. It can be used anywhere in the United
States, in British America, and Alaska. Think of that, fellow
bird-lovers!

A good field glass is indispensable to successful bird study,
especially if you desire to name all the birds without killing any, as
I hope you do. Perhaps the older ornithologists, like Audubon and
Wilson, did not use helps of this kind, but they used guns, and
consequently had to study dead birds, while you and I want to study
living ones. Their killing of birds was, indeed, necessary, for
purposes of scientific classification; but now that such classifying
has, for the most part, been attained, the gun has largely gone out of
vogue, and the glass has taken its place. Let your alliterative motto
be: _With the glass, not the gun_.

I would advise you not to buy a flashily colored glass, for it will
dazzle your eyes on sunshiny days. Be sure to get one that is easily
focused, as you must be quick in studying such shy creatures as the
birds. At first the glass may strain and tire your eyes, but that
difficulty will pass in a short time. Expertness will soon be won in
the use of a binocular, so that you will be able, almost instantly, to
get the desired object within its field, even though the object be
quite tiny. An opera glass is a great deal better than no glass at
all; a field glass is better still, and a Bausch & Lomb binocular of
six to eight magnifying power is the best of all; being almost equal to
having the bird in hand. The observer must lose as little time as
possible in sighting a shy bird, or it may escape him altogether.

A book-bag or haversack, strapped around your shoulders, will also be a
convenience. In it you can stow your bird manual, and a luncheon in
case you expect to spend the whole day in the open, for a hungry
rambler is not likely to be an acute ob