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, a veryconsiderable portion of the common birds of North America, and many of themore interesting and attractive specimens of other countries, in many respectssuperior to all other publications which have attempted the representation ofbirds, and at infinitely less expense. The appreciative reception by the public ofVol. I deserves our grateful acknowledgement. Appearing in monthly parts,it has been read and admired by thousands of people, who, through thelife-like pictures presented, have made the acquaintance of many birds,and have since become enthusiastic observers of them. It has been introducedinto the public schools, and is now in use as a text book by hundreds ofteachers, who have expressed enthusiastic approval of the work and of itsgeneral extension. 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 been conscientiouslyprepared from the best authorities by a careful observer of the feather-growingdenizens of the field, the forest, and the shore, while the juvenile autobiographieshave received the approval of the highest ornithological authority.
The publishers take pleasure in the announcement that the general excellenceof Birds will be maintained in subsequent volumes. The subjectsselected for the third and fourth volumes—many of them—will be of the rarebeauty in which the great Audubon, the limner par excellence of birds, wouldhave found “the joy of imitation.”
Nature Study Publishing Company.
BIRDS.
Illustrated by COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY.
BIRD SONG.
E made several early morningexcursions into thewoods and fields duringthe month of June, andwere abundantly rewarded in manyways—by beholding the graciousawakening of Nature in her variousforms, kissed into renewed activity bythe radiance of morn; by the sweetsmelling air filled with the perfume ofa multitude of opening flowers w