CHRONOLOGICAL CATALOGUE. 231 



Baird, Spencer F., T. M. Brewer, and R. Ridgway— Contimiecl. 

 published in periodicals aud the Proceeilings of Societies. The reports of many of the gov- 

 ernment exploring parties also contain valuable data, especially those of Dr. Jfewbeiry, Dr. 

 Heeimann, Dr. J. G. Cooper, Dr. Suckley, Dr. Kennerly, and others. 



More recently (in 1870) Professor "Whitney, Chief of the Geological Survey of California, 

 has published a very important volume on the ornithology of the entire west coast of IN'oi'th 

 America, written by Dr. J. G. Cooper, and containing much original detail in reference to the 

 habits of the western species. This is by far the most valuable contribution to the biogra- 

 phy of ilforth American birds that has appeared since the time of Audubon, and, with its 

 typogi-aphical beauty and numerous and excellent illustrations, all on wood and many of tliem 

 colored, constitutes one of the most noteworthy publications in American Zoology. 



Up to the time of the appearance of the work of Audubon, nearly all that was known of 

 the great region of the United States west of the Missouri River was the result of the jour- 

 ney of Lewis & Clark up the Missouri and across to the Pacific Coast, and that of John K. 

 Townsend and Mr. Nuttall, both of whom made some collections and brought back notices 

 of the country, which, however, they were unable to explore to any great extent. The 

 entire region of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and California was unvis- 

 ited, as also a great portion of territory north of the United States boundary, including 

 British Columbia and Alaska. 



A work by Sir John Richardson, forming a volume in his series of 'Fauna Boreali- Amer- 

 icana, ' in rcfereuco to the ornithology of the region covered by the Hud.son Bay Company's 

 operations, was publislu'd in 18.31, aud has been much used by Mr. Audubon, but embraces 

 little or nothing of the great breeding grounds of water birds in the neighborhood of the 

 Great Slave and Bear Lakes, the Upper Yukon, and the shores of the Arctic coast. 



It will thus be seen that a tliird of a century has elapsed since any attempt has been made 

 to present a systematic history of the birds of North America. 



The object of the present work is to give, in as concise a form as possible, an account of 

 what is known of the birds, not only of the United States, but of the whole region of North 

 America north of the boundary -line of Mexico, including Greenland on the one side, and 

 Alaska with its islands on the other. The published materials for such a history are so 

 copious that it is a matter of surprise that they have not been sooner utilized, consisting, as 

 they do, of numerous scattered biographies and reports of many government expeditions and 

 private explorations. But the most productive source has bci^n the great amount of manu- 

 script contained in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution, in the form of correspond- 

 ence, elaborate reports, and fleld-notes of collectors and travelers, the use of which, for the 

 present work, has been liberally allowed by Professor Henry. By far tlie most important of 

 these consist of notes made by the late Robert Kennicott in British Ameiica, and received 

 from him and other gentlemen in the Hudson Bay TeiTitory, who were brought into intimate 

 relationship with the Smithsonian Institution through Mr. Kennicott's efforts. Among them 

 may be mentioned more especially Mr. R. MacFarlane, Mr. B. R. Ross, Mr. James Lockhart, 

 Mr. Lawrence Clark, Mr. Strachan Jones, and others, whoso names will appear in the course 

 of the work. The especial value of the communications received from these gentlemen lies 

 in the fact that they resided for a long time in a region to which a large proportion of the 

 rapacious and water birds of North America resort during the summer for incubation, and 

 which until recently has been sealed to explorers. 



Equally serviceable has been the information received from the Yukon River and Alaska 

 generally, including the Aleutian Islands, as supplied by Messrs. Robert Kennicott, "William 

 H. Dall, Henry M. Bannister, Henry "W. Elliott, and others. 



It should be understood that the remarks as to the absence of geneial works on American 

 Ornithology, since the time of Audubon, ax)ply only to the life history of the species, as, in 

 1858, one of tht^ authors of tlie present work published a systematic account of the birds of 

 North America, coustitutiiiL; v(ilunjeIX of the series of Paci lie Kallvnad l;( jxirts: -wliilefrom 

 the pen of Dr. I':iiio(; ("oms, •■ v.cll-known and eminent oniii lidlu^ist, aiiinarcd in ], ^72 a com- 

 prehensive Vdhiinc, riititlcii 'A Key to North American l;iru.->,' coiitaiuiiii;- di .scriptions of 

 the species and higher groiii)s. 



The technical, or descriptive, matter of the present work has been prepared by Messrs. 

 Baird and Ridgway, that relating to the Jiaptores entirely by Mr. Ridgway; and all the 

 accounts of thc^ habits of the species are from the pen of Dr. Brewer. In addition to the 

 matter supplied by these gentlemen, Professor Theodore N. Gill has furnished that portion of 

 the iuUiidiK tioii dehning the class of birds as compared with other vertebrates; while to Dr. 

 Com s is t(i \u -i\(n the entire credit for the pages embracing the tables of the Orders and 

 Eamilii s. as wtll as for the Glossary beginning on page 535 of Vol. III. 



Nearly all the drawings of the full-length figures of biids contained in the work were made 

 directly on the wood, by Mr. Edwin L. Sheppard, of Philadelphia, from original sketches 

 taken from nature; while the heads were executed for th(^ most part by Mr. Henry "W. Elliott 

 and Mr. Ridgway. Both series have been engraved by Mr. Hobart H. Nichols, of "Washing- 



