Excerpt from Bird Notes Afield: A Series of Essays on the Birds of California Formia has been written, not for scientists but for those who Wish to have an introduction to our familiar birds in their native haunts. If it persuades some few of its readers to go out of doors and look at nature with a more friendly and inquiring eye, its purpose will have been accomplished. That a certain skeleton of scientific classifica tion should underlie the work has seemed necessary in order to convey to the uninitiated some inkling of the syste matic grouping of the various species, but I have endeavored to subordinate the science to life wherever possible. Several of the essays have been previously published in Zoe, Tlxe San. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.