PREFACE ix 



value and interest of the information thus conveyed, but because the reports and bulletins 

 in which it is contained are likely within a few years to become unavailable through the 

 exhaustion of the comparatively small supply printed. This, indeed, has already happened 

 in the case of many of the most valuable bulletins, which are now unobtainable except in 

 the larger public libraries and other repositories for such documents, and therefore have 

 only very restricted circulation. Possessors of Birds of America will therefore have 

 pemianent access to the best of this very valuable material. 



Finally, some explanation of the general form in which this work is presented may not 

 come amiss in this connection. In their arrangement most ornithologies follow the evolu- 

 tionary plan of proceeding from the lowest to the highest forms which, in the case of the 

 birds, means from the Diving Birds which are considered by the scientists the lowest forms, 

 to the Thrushes which are ranked as the highest. This is the order in which the birds are 

 arranged in the Check-List of the American Ornithologists' Union, and the one which has 

 been followed in these pages. 



The Check-List of the American Ornithologists' Union includes the names of about 

 twelve hundred birds to which systematic ornithologists accord full specific or "sub-specific" 

 rank. This sub-specific distinction is often based upon very inconsiderable plumage differ- 

 ences of little or no interest or significance to the lay student of birds, while the character of 

 the bird remains unchanged. In other words, a Robin is a Robin, whether he has white 

 tips to the outer tail-feathers, as in the common Robin, or whether he lacks these spots, 

 as in the Western Robin. Birds oj America discusses about one thousand birds. It 

 practically covers every species and subspecies with which a student of lairds is likely to 

 come in contact in North America. 



The publishers wish to thank Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson, who, in addition to his services 

 as Editor-in-chief, has given freely of the photographs and material assembled by the National 

 Association of Audubon Societies; Mr. Herbert K. Job, for his photographs and helpful sug- 

 gestions; Mr. Edward H. Forbush, for his advice, and, through him, the Massachusetts 

 Board of Agriculture for ornithological literature printed by them; Mr. William L. Finley 

 and Mr. H. T. Bohlman for pictures supplied; Dr. Jonathan Dwight, Jr., for valuable sug- 

 gestions and criticisms, and permission to quote from The Aiik\ Dr. R. W. Shufeldt for 

 critical suggestions; Mr. C. Walter Short for his interest and practical advice on manu- 

 facturing details; Mr. H.J. Vredenburgh for his careful supervision of the photo-engraving; 

 Dr. Frank M. Chapman for permission to quote from his books; Mrs. Florence Merriam 

 Bailey for permission to quote from her book, Handbook oj Western Birds of the United 

 States; Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, for permission to quote from her book Birdcraft; Mr. 

 John Burroughs for permission to quote from his Works; Mr. C. William Beebe for 

 photographs; Elizabeth Torrey and John W. Seabury for permission to quote from the 

 Works of Bradford Torrey; Mr. Winthrop Parkhurst for permission to quote from 

 the Works of H. E. Parkhurst; Mr. William Leon Dawson for permission to quote from 

 Birds of Ohio, Birds of Washington, and Birds of California; Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller for 

 permission to quote from The Children's Book of Birds and A Bird Lover in the West; Mr. 

 F. Schuyler Mathews for quotations from his Field Book of Wild Birds and their Music; 

 Mr. Ralph Hoffman for quotations from his Guide to the Birds of Nciv England and Eastern 

 New York ; Mr. Walter H. Rich for permission to quote from his Feathered Game of the North- 

 east; Mr. H. T. Middleton, Mr. Silas A. Lottridge, Mr. A. A. Allen, and all others who have 

 so generously contributed of their best in photographic studies; the United Fruit Company 

 for the use of paintings for reproduction on the title pages; and the Hercules Powder Co., 

 for quotations from Game Farming for Profit and Pleasure. 



The following publishers have courteously granted these permissions: D. Appleton & 

 Co. for quotations from the Works of Frank M. Chapman; Houghton Mifflin Co. for " To 

 an Oriole " by Edgar A. Fawcett, quotations from The Children's Book of Birds and .4 Bird 

 Lover in the West by Olive Thorne Miller, quotations from Handbook of Birds of the Western 



