PREFACE 



TO THE SECOND EDITION- 



'nr^HE publication of a new edition of this work has 

 -*• enabled me to correct some errors which oc- 

 curred in the former edition, and to add some recently 

 discovered facts of distribution and habits. We have 

 yet much to learn about the birds of this country, but 

 when it becomes better known that bird-life displays 

 much that is of rare interest to the lovers of nature and 

 to the thoughtful, contemplative mind, — that the li\^es 

 qf these graceful creatures are analogous to our own; 

 that they have their periods of infantile helplessness, 

 and are trained for future self-reliance ; that they have 

 their love affairs, select their mates, build their homes, 

 and foster their offspring with almost human instincts, — 

 we may safely predict an ever-increasing interest in the 

 study of these lives, and the solving of many problems 

 which baffle the student of to-day. 



M. C. 

 Bar Harbor, Maine, 

 September, 1896. 



