Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1922-05-04
RECORD OF NATIVE BIRDS.

--r and the names of many more
-. ubicb she is not yet familiar. A
- Of them as complete as the
.ss-,s- can make it will not only be
,,.resting TO her but from the nat
.-,..,,s roint of view will be valuable
:, :, making il she confines the list
.,-;,,ry 10 the names of those birds
,1a, she is sure of.
4 good way to begin such record
g.. ~ buy a good-sized blank book, or
setter still loose-leaf notebook, and
u, n. first page write, NATIVE Birds
:, the Vicinity Of" (your home town.
underneath il your name, with the
late m which YOU begin TO keep the
..,orJ Then, on the successive leav-
o.. write the names of the birds you
.,oo by sight. but allow several pages
each one. Put the name of the bird
9, the tor of the first page reserved
ar +, and Below that the description !:
,o'or size. shape, where you found
:, lie habits, how it builds its nest,
.1e color Of its eggs, and whatever other
details you know TO be authentic. To
+, sure of accuracy il is well to check
IN YOUR information from one Of the
trustworthy books on native birds.
Following that, write whatever you
know about your subject from obser-
yatjon or whatever you can learn from
others Bc careful TO leave space
enough for future notes, for you will
be surprised to see how much informa-
ton will come your way once you have
begun to look for it,
Periodicals sometimes have excellent
rictures of native birds, besides short
descriptive articles. Cut out the pic
lures and the descriptive text as you
come across them and paste them in
their proper place in your record. Keep
such as YOU have not yet studied in a
large envelope for future references.
Also, there are publishing houses that
sell colored prints large enough to be
Of use in identifying the birds. They
are not expensive. Snapshots of the
living birds have a special interest,
but il is not easy to take good photo
graphs of wild birds. Still, by keep
ing very quiet and having great pa
uence, it is sometimes possible to get
a snapshot at close range.
Birds that you know have been found
IN your neighborhood, but with which
& YOU are not familiar, should follow those
that you can identify. II you can
write only the name, do that, and
leave the rest of the space blank until
n YOU know more about your subject;
then find out more whenever you can
y When you set down any interesting
TACT that you have noticed, always
give the date and the place where you
q made the observation. For example,
one afternoon toward the close of
last summer, or early in the fall, an
II enormous flock of nighthawks on their
q way north passed the home of a girl
b VINO had started record. They were
n not living in cloud, but were travel
d ing separately, wheeling about and
q settling n trees as far as she could
>ee IN the valley, and then resuming
meiT Hight That was extremely in
'feSing, but the observers record
q 10" seems incomplete and unsatis-
y factory because she did not set down
"e l1te ans IS not even sure of the
n month
n '-'""P' some of your older friends
q ID" 'oucn for some valuable piece
81 " information; almost everyone has at
,eaS' one interesting anecdote about
81 ''NS' or mas seen something worth
''IofIing' such as this: On a warm.
s. sunny afternoon in May, 1929, a bird
4 ''.'' heIghhor heard a loud hum
''"e' tracing it to its source. she
., .1"l 1ozenS of humming birds about
WV '"e'fy tree, some sitting on twigs
,'u o'IefS lowering in the air. MANY
" "em were rubythroats, and they
as ..- beautiful sight among the
su'I'y blossoms. The meeting SEEM
~ " a social gathering rather than
guest for nectar.
49,. ''uF own neighborhood, where.
b i n.' II may be, you probably can find
80 % much that is worth observing
- YOU could find anywhere. One Of
E u W. .'@'''cS We love to read, the Natural
& a "o'O'y and Antiquities Of Selborne
q Cilho,. .' u. by an English clergyman,
b 1"Uett White, who made his great
q u,,I p rom the curiosities and the nat
q r.1,. history of Selborne, the quiet