little wild-cherry cane. I should
add that it had a hooked handle, so that I could hang it on the strap
of my haversack when I needed both hands.

In the beginning of your observations you will find the work of
identifying the birds a rare and exciting pleasure; then, after you
have named all the species in your neighborhood, it will be no less
delightful to study their interesting ways, or to extend your
researches to other fields. And if at any time you observe some odd
bits of bird behavior which you think will be news to the many bird
lovers the world over, why should you not report them to one of the
bird magazines, so that others may share the pleasures of your
discoveries? An admirer of feathered folk should not be selfish;
indeed, I do not see how he can be.

It simply remains to be said that this volume is an illustration of the
method of bird study just indicated. In the first place, I shall show,
in a few chapters, how the student goes about his work of identifying
species and making new bird friends; then will follow a number of
monographs indicating how much may be learned about the life histories
of several interesting species; next there will be a miscellaneous
collection of incidents of bird life, showing how many odds and ends
the industrious and observing rambler may gather by the way; and,
finally, the book will conclude with four somewhat technical chapters
on bird education, bird music, bird flight, and bird feet, which I hope
will prove interesting as well as instructive.

MAKING NEW FRIENDS

A friend once told me of a letter he had received from a correspondent
who is an enthusiastic botanist. The writer, having just returned from
an excursion in which he found a flower that was new to him, gave vent
to his feelings of exultation by exclaiming, "Oh, the joy! the joy!" A
like experience comes to the bird lover when he makes a new
acquaintance in the feathered domain, no matter how many other
observers may have seen and studied the species. "A bird that is new
to _me_ is to all intents and purposes a new bird," is his
self-complacent mode of reasoning, though it may not be distinguished
for its logic.

[Illustration: Chipping Sparrow]

After studying the birds in Ohio and Indiana for a good many years, I
moved to eastern Kansas, where I lived for five and a half years. My
rambles were by no means confined to the wooded bluffs and hollows that
bound the Missouri River on the wes