Vm INTRODUCTION 



To enable future workers, at need, to reconstruct original series, I have, 

 whenever possible, named the current resting places of skins that have left 

 our collection and, by indicating those that have wholly dropped from 

 sight, may yet succeed in bringing them again to light. 



In view of the foregoing remarks, I need not say that neotypes have, in 

 my eyes, no actual existence. Nor will one find, in the pages to follow, any 

 example of what might be called a pseudotype, that is to say, a holotype 

 specimen arbitrarily declared to represent a species other than its own 

 (for which a precedent has recently been set in the case of an African duck) . 



The treatment followed by me may here be summarized: I list first the 

 name given at the original description, exactly as published, even when mis- 

 spelled, followed immediately by the bibliographic reference; then, if the 

 original name is now considered a mere synonym of another, or has been 

 placed in a genus other than the one used by the author, or has been degraded 

 from a binomial to a trinomial (or elevated from a trinomial to a binomial), 

 I so indicate, with citation of author (s) and place (s) of publication respon- 

 sible for the changes accepted; third, I list the type or cotypes still to be 

 found in Washington, with whatever data are known about them and, when 

 data were erroneously transcribed by the original author, so indicating and 

 making corrections; finally, there may be a commentary on specimens now 

 missing from the series and frequently also a discussion of the history of the 

 name and of the original specimens. 



It would have been presumptuous in me to have attempted subjectively to 

 allocate to modem genera and species so many hundreds of bird names 

 from every continent, and I have, whenever possible, drawn upon the writ- 

 ings of modern revisers to indicate the names currently employed; occasion- 

 ally, one author is cited to justify the use of a given generic name, while 

 another is cited for the specific name, the use of a trinomial, etc. In certain 

 cases, I have personally disagreed with the treatments accorded by others, 

 in other cases I have found no modern criticism at all, and then have made 

 my own decisions, indicated by "Deignan (MS.) ." 



Whether the decision is my own or that of one or more of my colleagues, 

 it is possible that injustices have been done to some names that have here 

 been reduced to synonymy ; I can only plead that each name has been viewed 

 by me with all the objectivity of which I have been capable and suggest that 

 sooner or later, with increasing knowledge, such errors will be automatically 

 rectified. Names very recently published and not yet commented upon in 

 print have been assumed to be valid. Whenever an author has been himself 

 responsible for synonymizing his own name, I have so accredited him. 



Certain authors will be disappointed to find that some major work of theirs 

 on a given species or genus has not been cited as authority for my treatment. 

 I can only say that this does not indicate that I disparage the validity of their 

 work, but rather that it appeared after I had completed the pertinent portion 

 of my studies, and, finding no discrepancy between the new work and the 



