An adequate method of transcribing bird's notes has as yet to be devised and the author realizes only too well how unsatisfactory the data here presented will appear to the student. It is hoped, however, that they may sometimes prove of assistance in naming birds in life.
As has been said before, the aim of this volume is to help students to learn the names of our birds in their haunts. But we should be doing scant justice to the possibilities of bird study if, even by silence, we should imply that they ended with the learning to know the bird. This is only the beginning of the quest which may bring us into close intimacy with the secrets of nature. The birds' haunts and food, their seasons and times of coming and going; their songs and habits during courtship, their nest-building, egg-laying, incubating and care of their young, these and a hundred other subjects connected with their lives may claim our attention and by increasing our knowledge of bird-life, add to our love of birds.
HOW BIRDS ARE NAMED
Birds have two kinds of names. One is a common, vernacular, or popular name; the other is a technical or scientific name. The first is usually given to the living bird by the people of the country it inhabits. The second is applied to specimens of birds by ornithologists who classify them.
Common names in their origin and use know no law. Technical names are bestowed under the system of nomenclature established by Linnæus and their formation and application are governed by certain definite, generally accepted rules. The Linnæan system, as it is now employed by most American ornithologists, provides that a bird, in addition to being grouped in a certain Class, Order, Family, etc., shall have a generic and specific name which, together, shall not be applied to any other animal.
Our Robin, therefore, is classified and named as follows:
CLASS AVES, Birds.
ORDER PASSERES, Perching Birds.
Suborder Oscines, Singing Perching Birds.