CHAIRMAN'S PREFACE vii 



plants follows Britton and Brown's Illustrated Flora, Coulter and 

 Nelson's Manual, Piper's Flora of Washington, and other state floras. 

 Common usage has been deemed more important than adherence 1o 

 supposedly universal codes of nomenclature. The nomenclature on am- 

 phibians and reptiles in the states and provinces is after L. Stejneger and 

 T. Barbour: Checkhst of North American Amphibians and Reptiles, 

 second edition. Names of mammals are from G. S. Miller, Jr. : List of 

 North American Recent Mammals, 1923, U. S. National Museum Bulletin 

 128; and those of the birds follow the American Ornithological Union 

 check list. In the case of most animals and plants, scientific name and 

 common name are used together the first time the name of the species 

 appears in a state or provincial account, thereafter in the same article, the 

 common name stands alone. The birds are an exception to this, as scientific 

 names of species breeding or resident north of Mexico are used only in the 

 list at the close of the volume. The common names of birds are fully as 

 well established as the scientific ones. 



The absence of data on invertebrate or lower vertebrate life is, of course, 

 striking all through the guide. This is perhaps unavoidable. The princi- 

 pal users will be students of mammals, birds, or general ecology including 

 plants. As a matter of fact, little work has been done on the invertebrates 

 as regards ecology, excepting in aquatic work, which is seldom mentioned 

 by the authors. As regards the Mollusca, F. C. Baker states that little 

 work has been done except in certain states, state lists being usually syste- 

 matic, and not ecologic. He has added here and there a note on inverte- 

 brate life, but little can be done at present to strengthen this side of the 

 zoology. 



The data included in the guide had been brought together in the form of 

 manuscripts during seven years of more or less continuous effort, and when 

 turned over to the Publication Editor, the principal task appeared to be 

 rendering of nomenclature and organization somewhat more uniform. ^ The 

 extent and character of the Publication Editor's work is indicated in the 



second preface. 



V. E. Shelford. 



Champaign, May 7, 1924. 



