INTRODUCTION 



By T. Gilbert Pearson. B. S. 



HERE is to-day in the United States a very wide interest in the conservation 

 of wild birds. This is manifested in the great interest which the pubHc shows 

 in proposed legislative enactments for bird-protection, in the propagation 

 of various game-birds on private and public properties, in the building and 

 erection of innumerable boxes for the convenience of nesting birds, and in 

 the constantly increasing financial support given to the National Associa- 

 tion of Audubon Societies, and its many affiliated state and local bird protec- 

 tion clubs throughout the country. 



A lively curiosity has spread among all classes of thinking people as to 

 the names of the birds they see, what they feed on, and something of their 

 coming and going, with the result that the demand for bird books has become very- great. 

 No publisher of general literature would to-day deem his list of books adequate without 

 one or more standard works on some phase of ornithology. Literary magazines con- 

 stantly are publishing articles on the habits of l>irds, the migration of birds, the economic 

 value of birds, the esthetic interest in bird life. 



There have been recorded in North America eight hundred distinct species of wild 

 birds, and four hundred additional subspecies, or climatic varieties. This refers to the ter- 

 ritory lying north of the Rio Grande — and not to Middle America, which includes Mexico 

 and Central America. Naturally the individuals of some of these species are far more 

 numerous than are others. For example, during historic times there probably never were 

 more than a few thousand specimens of the California Vulture, while such common species 

 as the Robin and the Mourning Dove run into the millions. 



Some birds are extremely rare, for example only one specimen of the Scaled Petrel 

 has ever been taken in North America, and that was in Livingston county, New York, 

 although the natural habitat of all Petrels is on the open seas. 



No one state contains all these various forms of bird-life. From the latest available 

 information the following list shows the number of birds that have been recorded in the 

 various states of the Union: 



Alabama, 275; Arizona, 371; Arkansas, 255; California, 541; Colorado, 403; Connect- 

 icut, 334; Delaware, 229; District of Columbia, 293; Florida, 362; Idaho, 210; Illinois, 390; 

 Indiana, 321; Iowa, 356; Kansas, 379; Kentucky, 228; Louisiana, 323; Maine, 327; Mary- 

 land, 290; Massachusetts, 369; Michigan, 326; Minnesota, 304; Missouri, 383 ;' Nebraska, 

 418; Nevada, 250; New Hampshire, 283; New Jersey, 358; New Mexico, 314; New York, 

 412; North Carolina, 331; North Dakota, 338; Ohio, 330; Oregon, 328; Pennsylvania, 300; 

 Rhode Island, 293; South Carolina, 337; Tennessee, 223; Texas, 546; Utah, 214; Vermont, 

 255; Virginia, 302; Washington, 372; West Virginia, 246; Wisconsin, 357; Wyoming, 288. 

 For the remaining five states no list of birds has been published. 



Among the twelve hundred species and subspecies there are a considerable number 

 that are exotic and are never seen in this country save on rare occasions when blown far by 

 storms they wander to our shores. Among this class may be mentioned such species as 

 the Scarlet Ibis from South America, the Mew Gull from northern Europe, the Giant Ful- 

 mar of the southern oceans, and the Lapwing, Rook, and Wheatear from the old world. 



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