xxiv PREFACE. 



letters) relates chiefly to the formation of a collection of eggs, 

 containing, however, a section on structural details, and an- 

 other on classification. Each of the succeeding chapters 

 treats of an ornithological order ^ though the last treats of the 

 game-birds. Each chapter is divided into sections, which are 

 continuously numbered throughout (in Arabic figures), and 

 which mark the w2iViou^ families (subfamilies being otherwise 

 indicated). The genera of each section are marked by Ro- 

 man numerals, and the species belonging to them by capital 

 letters in parenthesis. The biography of each species is 

 divided into four parts : a, a description of the mature birds 

 (but not of the young, for which see the Appendix E) ; 5, a 

 description of tlieir nest and eggs ; c, a description of their 

 habits, and c/, of their notes. In the first part, various 

 minute details are freely omitted, which it has been thought 

 unnecessary to introduce. In spelling the English names of 

 birds, the following system has been here adopted. Specific 

 names are begun with cai3ital letters to distinguish them from 

 similar names of groups (e. g.^ the Crow Blackbirds) ; when 

 they are composed partly of a family-name, such as "thrush,'* 

 that name is never compounded with another (e. ^., Wood 

 Thrush) ; when they are compounds of " bird," that word is 

 united by a hyphen to a noun immediately preceding, but not 

 to an adjective, except in cases to the contrary established by 

 long usage (e. g.^ Cat-bird, Blue Bird, but Swamp Black- 

 bird). * 



Finally, that this book may prove useful to students, inter- 

 esting to lovers of nature, and acceptable to the public, is the 

 hope and wish of its 



1876. Author. 



* These rules have not been strictly followed in the present edition. — W. B. 



