BIRDS
A MONTHLY SERIAL
ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY
DESIGNED TO PROMOTE
KNOWLEDGE OF BIRD-LIFE
VOLUME II.
CHICAGO
Nature Study Publishing Company
copyright, 1897
by
Nature Study Publishing Co.
chicago.
INTRODUCTION.
This is the second volume of a series intended to present, in accuratecolored portraiture, and in popular and juvenile biographical text, avery considerable portion of the common birds of North America, andmany of the more interesting and attractive specimens of other countries,in many respects superior to all other publications which have attemptedthe representation of birds, and at infinitely less expense. Theappreciative reception by the public of Vol. I deserves our gratefulacknowledgement. Appearing in monthly parts, it has been read and admiredby thousands of people, who, through the life-like pictures presented,have made the acquaintance of many birds, and have since becomeenthusiastic observers of them. It has been introduced into the publicschools, and is now in use as a text book by hundreds of teachers, whohave expressed enthusiastic approval of the work and of its generalextension. The faithfulness to nature of the pictures, in color andpose, have been commended by such ornithologists and authors as Dr. ElliottCoues, Mr. John Burroughs, Mr. J. W. Allen, editor of The Auk,Mr. Frank M. Chapman, Mr. J. W. Baskett, and others.
The general text of Birds—the biographies—has beenconscientiously prepared from the best authorities by a careful observerof the feather-growing denizens of the field, the forest, and the shore,while the juvenile autobiographies have received the approval of thehighest ornithological authority.
The publishers take pleasure in the announcement that the generalexcellence of Birds will be maintained in subsequent volumes.The subjects selected for the third and fourth volumes—many of them—willbe of the rare beauty in which the great Audubon, the limnerpar excellence of birds, would have found “the joy of imitation.”
Nature Study Publishing Company.
BIRDS.
Illustrated by COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY.
BIRD SONG.
T SHOULD not be overlookedby the young observer that ifhe would learn to recognize atonce any particular bird, heshould make himself acquaintedwith the song and call notes of everybird around him. The identification,however, of the many feathered creatureswith which we meet in our rambleshas heretofore required so muchpatience,