Preface
This little book was written for the lover of outdoor life who has neither the time nor the patience to study natural history. There are many persons who are anxious to learn the common animals and flowers, their haunts and their habits, that they may enjoy Nature when they visit her. If they will take a minute each day to read the entry for that date, or if they will carry the book with them on their strolls into the country and while resting turn its pages, it may prove the means of discovering in fur or feather or flowering bud something before unknown to them.
The subjects chosen are of common interest, and nearly all can be found by any person who hunts for them assiduously. As the seasons vary in different localities, it has been impossible to set a date for the appearance or disappearance of an animal or a flower, that will apply alike to all parts of the country for which this volume is intended. Eastern United States.
J. Alden Loring.
Oswego, N. Y.
[List of Illustrations]
| PAGE | |
| White-breasted Nuthatch on a Bird-house | [Frontispiece] |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | [15] |
| English Sparrow | [25] |
| Purple Martins | [35] |
| Northern Shrike | [39] |
| Prairie Horned Lark | [47] |
| Loon | [53] |
| Hibernating Woodchuck | [57] |
| European Hedgehog | [75] |
| Nest of a Meadow Mouse Exposed by Melting Snow | [85] |
| Screech Owl | [89] |
| Meadow Lark | [99] |
| Downy Woodpecker | [105] |
| Fox at Den | [119] |
| Chimney Swift | [125] |
| "One of your bird-houses should be tenanted by a wren" | [129] |
| Male Bobolink | [141] |
| Barn Swallow | [153] |
| Belted Kingfisher | [165] |
| Catbird | [171] |
| Woodchuck | [183] |
| Song Sparrow | [191] |
| Yellow-billed Cuckoo | [199] |
| Kingbird | [207] |
| Red-winged Blackbirds | [215] |
| Cedar Waxwing | [221] |
| Yellow-breasted Chat | [245] |
| Skunk Hunting Grasshoppers | [255] |
| American Redstart | [259] |
| Grebe | [277] |
| Spotted Sandpiper | [281] |
| Chickadees (Upper, Mountain; Lower, Hudsonian) | [287] |
| "The great horned owl and the snowy owl can be tamed" | [301] |
| Blue Jays | [305] |
| A Four-storied Warbler's Nest. Each Story Represents an Attempt by the Warbler to Avoid Becoming Foster-parent of a Young Cowbird | [311] |
| Snow Bunting | [315] |
| Cotton-tail Rabbit Taking a Sun Bath | [331] |
| Bonaparte Gull | [337] |
WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH.