Identifier: birdcraftfield00wrig (find matches)
Title: Birdcraft : a field book of two hundred song, game, and water birds
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Wright, Mabel Osgood, 1859-1934 Fuertes, Louis Agassiz, 1874-1927
Subjects: Birds -- United States
Publisher: New York : Macmillan Co.
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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se quite as well as a pieceof bric-a-brac as it did in life. Is not the Owls generalimmobility the reason why it was chosen for the pet of theGoddess of Wisdom ? Doubtless her ancient ladyship knewthat her protege would never take the trouble to contradicther and never express a decided opinion, and thus wouldpass for the incarnation of knowledge. Winter is the only season when you may point a gun at abird, and then never at a Song-bird, but you may do these afavour by shooting some of their enemies, the bad EnglishSparrows, and one or two Hawks and Owls. Yet you mustspare both Hawks and Owls with these exceptions, since Dr.A. K. Fisher has given conclusive evidence of their value toagriculture. Never shoot even a Game-bird, or Wild Duck, merely forthe sake of killing, and remember when on the bird-quest tokeep your hands free from all destruction of life, so that youmay answer in the affirmative the question, — Hast thou named all the birds without a gun ? dl HOW TO NAME THE BIRDS.
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O./ HOW TO NAME THE BIRDS. In studying the birds as you see them about you, try toacquire the habit of gauging the size, general colour, andpoise at a glance, gaining the details, if possible, afterward.Impress upon yourself the location in which you saw thebird, its occupation, its method of feeding, whether, if uponthe ground, it walked or hopped. Was it dashing throughthe air or skimming low over the meadows, uttering a twit-tering cry and turning and curving sharply as it caughtinsects in its wide mouth ? If so, you must look for it inthe Swallow Family. Was it a brown or olive-backed bird somewhat of thebuild of the Eobin but smaller, with a light-coloured breastmore or less speckled, scratching among the bushes for theinsects upon which it feeds ? You must look for it in theThrush Family, and if you do not place it there searchamong the Ground Warblers. Or was it a tiny olive-gray bird that caught your eye as it peeped about the twigsof the orchard trees in the autumn, turning i

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