Check List of North American Birds. 



Note. — The species are numbered consecutively from 1 to 635. 

 Stragglers have the number in brackets. Varieties bear the number 

 of the species to which they belong, with a, h, c, etc., unless a variety 

 is our only representative of the species, when it is separately enu- 

 merated. Obscure or doubtful species are marked with a note of 

 interrogation after the number. Each species is followed by the 

 original describer's name ; when this is not also the authority for 

 the nomenclature adopted the name of such authority is added, the 

 former being retained in parenthesis. A similar practice is observed 

 in the cases of varieties ; when, as in most instances, they were origi- 

 nally described as species they are followed by the authority for their 

 reduction to varieties, as well as by the name of the describer; the 

 latter in parenthesis. 



The List contains a very few species discovered since the "Key" 

 was printed; otherwise, it is an exact reflection of that work, the 

 arrangement and nomenclature being identical. .The numbers of the 

 genera as used in the Key are given in the head lines of the List in 

 order to facilitate reference. 



Authors are at variance in the formation of the genitive of Latinized 

 proper names ; in the absence of any uuivei'sally observed rule, euphony 

 may perhaps be advantageously consulted. In the Key, the i was 

 doubled in all cases of words ending in a consonant, the nominative 

 being considered to end in -ius ; this practice is prefei'ably applicable 

 to monosyllables, as Bairdii, and polysyllables, as Anduhonii. But it 

 is necessary to use single i in words ending in r, as Cooperi, and best 

 to do so in most cases of dissyllables, as Wilsoni, Cassini, Swainsoni. 

 The same is the case with all words ending in a vowel. 



The following are the abbreviations used for authors' names occur- 

 ring most frequently ; others are for the most part written in full : — 

 All., Allen; Aud., Audubon; Bd., Baird; Badd., Boddaert; Bp., Bona- 

 parte; Caft., Cabanis ; Cass., Cassin; Cs., Cones; (Ta7Ji6., Gambel; Gm., 

 Gmelin; G*r., Gray; i., LinnjBUS ; io/V., Lafresnaye ; Lath., Ijntham; 

 iawr. , Lawrence ; Licht., Lichteustein ; iViuM., Nuttall; i?ezc/i., Reich- 

 enbach; Bidg., Eidgway; Scl., Sclater; Steph., Stephens; Sw., Swain- 

 son; Temm., Temminck; Towns., Townsend; V., Yieillot; Vig., 

 Vigors; Ifa(/Z., Wagler; PTi'Zs., Wilson. 



