VIII BLTLI.ETTN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



No attempt has been made to describe fully the adult plumages; 

 this has been well done already in the many manuals. The names 

 of colors, when in quotation marks, are taken from Ridgway's Color 

 Standards and Nomenclature (1912). In the measurements of eggs 

 the four extremes are printed in boldface type. 



Many who have contributed material for previous volumes have 

 continued to cooperate. Receipt of material from over 450 contribu- 

 tors has been acknowledged previously. In addition to these, our 

 thanks are due to the following new contributors: E. C. Aldrich, 

 Mrs. H. P. Bracelin, Maurice Brooks, Mildred Campbell, R. T. 

 Congdon, Murl Deusing, S. S. Dickey, H. E. Edgerton, W. G. F. 

 Harris, L. B, Howsley, Charles Macnamara, R. F. Mason, Jr., R. T. 

 Moore, A. R. Phillips, A. J. Pinckney, O. P. Silliman, A. F. Skutch, 

 Emily Smith, W. P. Steinbeck, R. R. Talmadge, H. O. Todd, Jr., 

 B. R Tyler, L. O. Williams, G. R. Wilson, and H. B. Wood. As 

 the demand for these bulletins is greater than the supply, the names 

 of those who have not contributed to the work during the previous 

 ten years may be dropped from the author's mailing list. 



Dr. Winsor M. Tyler rendered valuable assistance in reading and 

 indexing, for these groups, a large part of the literature on North 

 American birds, and contributed three complete life histories. E. C. 

 Stuart Baker and Alexander F. Skutch each contributed two com- 

 plete life histories; and Dr. Alfred O. Gross, the Rev. F. C. R. 

 Jourdain, Alexander Sprunt, Jr., Dr. George M. Sutton, and Robert 

 S. Woods contributed one each. Our thanks are also due F. Seymour 

 Hersey for figuring egg measurements. Egg measurements were 

 furnished, especially for this volume, by Dean Arnadon, A. M. Bailey, 

 American Museum of Natural History, GrifRng Bancroft, R. M. 

 Barnes, I. McT. Cowan, H. G. Deignan, C. E. Doe, J. H. Gillin, W. C. 

 Hanna, R. C. Harlow, R. T. Moore, R. T. Orr, P. B. Philipp, M. S. 

 Ray, J. H. Riley, G. H. Stuart, 3d, and Miss M. W. Wythe. 



Through the courtesy of the Bureau of Biological Survey, the 

 services of Frederick C. Lincoln were again obtained to compile the 

 distribution paragraphs. With the matchless files of the Survey at 

 his disposal, his many hours of careful work have produced results 

 far more satisfactory than could have been attained by the author, 

 who claims no credit and assumes no responsibility for this part 

 of the work. 



The manuscript for this bulletin was completed in March 1939. 

 Contributions received since then will be acknowledged later. Only 

 information of great importance could be added. The reader is 

 reminded again that this is a cooperative work; if he fails to find in 

 these volumes anything that he knows about the birds, he can blame 

 himself for not having sent the information to — 



The Author. 



