PREFACE, VII 



given to rest or re-creation), he hopes that critics may be lenient as to 

 this shortcoming of the work. 



A matter wliich has called forth wholly unexpected criticism is the 

 necessarily irregular manner in which brief descriptions of nests and 

 eggs are interspersed through the pages of this work. That the pur- 

 pose of these "vague and scattered descriptions" might be misunder- 

 stood by anyone was a ]:)ossibility which did not occur to the author; 

 on the contrary, their intent seemed so self-evident that explanation 

 was not thought of. Since, however, one writer does not "see how 

 they can be of much use to the student of oology," and inquires 

 why, "if considered of value — were they not given uniformly through- 

 out the work," it may be stated here that these brief descriptions are 

 given only (or at least mainly) in cases where some particular style 

 of nest or coloration of eggs is characteristic of a group (family or 

 genus), as a sort of accessory or supplemental group character,^ and 

 that the numerous instances of their omission result either from the 

 absence of anything specially characteristic or distinctive or else 

 (as is often the case among the tropical forms) from lack of information 

 on the subject. 



Placing the accent marks to names of localities in Mexico and other 

 parts of Spanish America may possibly be criticized on the ground of 

 inexpediency or that of irregularity in following the rules governing 

 such cases; but the author has been led to do so by the apparent 

 natural tendency of English-speaking people to sadly mispronounce 

 such names, even when spelled precisely the same in Spanish and 

 English; for example: Bogotji (Bo-go-tah'), David (Dah-veed'), 

 Ecuador (Ek-wah-dor'), Salvador (Sal-vah-dor'), General (Ilen-er- 

 ahl'), and Trinidad (Tre-ne-dad'), which in English (at least com- 

 monly) are pronounced Bo-go-tah, Da'-vid, Ek'-wa-dor, Sal'-va-dor, 

 Gen-er-al and Trin-i-dad, respectively. There are, of course, definite 

 rules of accentuation in the Spanish language, but these are unknown 

 to most Americans and other English-speaking people, and therefore 

 the accent is frecjuentl}" given where the rules do not require it. In 

 a majority of cases, vvhere the accent mark does not appear the 

 accent is normal, that is, the emphasis falls on the penultimate 

 syllable.- Other cases where the accent is omitted are those words 

 in wdiich the Spanish accent agrees with the prevalent English one; 

 as Nicaragua, Venzeuela, Yucatan, etc. In one case (that of Santa 

 Fe) general usage is followed, although the accent mark is, of course, 

 wholly superfluous in a word of only one syllable. 



Robert Ridgway. 

 July 26, 1911. 



^ For example, see genera Petwchelidon, Dulus, Psaltriparus, and Regulus, and 

 family Vireouida^ pages 45, 126, 424, 098, and 129, in Part III. 



^ It should be remembered that each vowel represents a distinct syllable in every 

 Spanish word; "pie" is not py, for instance, but jje-a'. 



