viii BIRDS OF AMERICA 



monumental work, The Birds of North and Middle America, of which seven parts have been 

 issued by the United vStates National Museum. These descriptions, however, are expressed 

 in terminology much of which is comprehensible only to the trained and essentially scientific 

 ornithologist. Therefore, in order to employ this material in the present work, it became 

 necessary to substitute common words for the technical terms; but in doing this great care 

 was taken to reproduce the exact meaning of the original text. By this expedient there 

 has been presented in plain language a vast amount of scientifically accurate descriptive 

 material which, in its original form, would be comprehensible for the lay reader only by the 

 constant use of an unabridged dictionary. Similar changes have been made, when they were 

 necessary, in using Ridgway's text for the paragraphs on the distribution of species, and 

 in the sections which characterize the generic groups. The descriptions of birds not included 

 in Parts I to VII of The Birds of North and Middle America, have been written by R. I. 

 Brasher. Special identification or "field" marks have been italicised. 



Although this precise and fairly complete physical description is essential for the pur- 

 poses of scientific ornithology, and often is needed by the layman to supplement or cor- 

 roborate his own observation, what Mr. Burroughs calls " the human significance of our 

 feathered neighbors " is undoubtedly that which chiefly interests the very large and increas- 

 ing army of bird lovers. This human significance is reflected in natural or acquired traits 

 which, singly or combined, often give a bird a very definite personality. To the observer 

 who learns to detect and understand these traits, the study of birds becomes far more than 

 a mere science devoted to the collection and classification of physical facts. For once he has 

 adopted this point of view, he begins to see something very like distinct character and per- 

 sonality in the bird world; and observing the manifestations of such traces of individuality 

 becomes to him infinitely more interesting and significant than the mere noting of the size, 

 contour, and plumage peculiarities of a bird, or its occurrence here, there, or elsewhere at 

 this or that time of the year. 



The characterizations, or life histories, of the species which receive separate treatment 

 in the following pages, were prepared with especial regard for portraying their interesting and 

 distinctive traits. In most instances this treatment reveals characteristics which serve to 

 differentiate the species with much definiteness. It is, of course, true that individual dif- 

 ferences may occur even within the species. For example, an individual bird may display 

 what clearly seems to be unusual confidence in man, or uncommon cleverness in conceal- 

 ing its nest or protecting its young. And it is frequently remarked that a certain bird may be 

 a much more accomplished singer than are the others of his species in the same vicinity. 

 Nevertheless there is a general similarity between the habits and temperament of birds 

 of the same species, and therefore a description of these habits will be found to apply to 

 the average individual bird of the species concerned. 



To the technical descriptive matter of especial interest to the systematic ornithologist, 

 and the popular characterizations intended particularly for the non-scientific student of 

 birds, has been added — wherever it is called for — much very important and interesting 

 matter concerning the actual usefulness of birds. This subject of economic ornithology 

 has been carefully investigated by the United States Bureau of Biological Survey, whose 

 experts have gathered and compiled a great mass of statistics and other data concerning 

 the food habits of birds, the object being to convey precise information as to which are the 

 useful and which are the harmful species. It would be difficult to overstate the value of 

 this work if its results were generally understood, for these researches demonstrate beyond 

 peradventure the enormous usefulness of the birds in destroying insect pests which, but for 

 this check of their natural rate of increase, would ruin every year many millions of dollars 

 worth of crops, and threaten with defoliation and death many kinds of trees. 



The Bureau of Biological Survey endeavors to disseminate this information as widely 

 as possible, and in order to assist in this good work the data gathered by its experts have 

 been freely used in the following pages. This has been done not only because of the obvious 



