E-text prepared by Al Haines Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 26346-h.htm or 26346-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/3/4/26346/26346-h/26346-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/3/4/26346/26346-h.zip) OUR BIRD COMRADES By LEANDER S. KEYSER Author of "Birddom," "In Bird Land," and "Birds of the Rockies," etc. [Frontispiece: American Sparrow-hawk] Rand, McNally & Company Chicago New York London Copyright, 1907 by Rand, McNally & Co. The Rand-McNally Press Chicago _To ALL WHO LOVE THE BIRDS FOR THEIR OWN SAKES, who desire to cultivate comradeship with them in books and in the field, and who will study them with the glass and without the gun._ BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION To know the birds intimately, to interpret their lives in all their varied conditions, one must get close to them. For the purpose of accomplishing this object the author of this volume has gone to their haunts day after day and watched them persistently at not a little cost of time, effort, and money. While the limits of a single volume do not permit him to present all of his observations, it is hoped that those here offered will be satisfactory as far as they go, and that the reader will be able to glean from these pages some new as well as interesting facts relative to bird life. The writer has had another purpose in view in preparing this book: He wishes to inspire others, especially the young, to use their eyes and ears in the study of the enchanting volume of Nature. This object, he believes, will be best accomplished by furnishing concrete examples of what may be achieved by earnest research. For purposes of stimulus an ounce of example is worth a pound of precept. If another sees you and me doing a thing joyfully, earnestly, we need scarcely say to him, "Go thou and do likewise." There is not much in the book that is technical, yet it aims at scientific accuracy in all of its statements, no bird being described whose status in the avian system has not been determined. If strange exploits are sometimes recited, the author has simply to say that he has been veracious in all of his statements, and that all the stories are "true bird stories." The author modestly believes that it will not be found uninteresting to nature lovers in general. Much of the material included in this volume has previously appeared in various periodicals, to the publishers of which the writer would hereby make grateful acknowledgment for their courtesy in waiving their copyright privileges. A number of the journals are given due credit elsewhere in the book. THE AUTHOR. _THE TABLE OF CONTENTS_