PUBLISHER'S PREFACE TO FIFTH REVISED EDITION. 



*' I ^HE present work constitutes the completion of Dr. Coues' life-long labors 

 -*- on behalf of the science of ornithology, too widely knowni and appreciated 

 to require further mention here. In preparing it for publication the publishers 

 have suffered extraorduiaiy expense, difficulty, and delay by the loss of Dr. 

 Coues' assistance in the proof-reading and illustrating of the book. The manu- 

 script was finished but shortly before his death, and though fortunately com- 

 plete in this form, was left in such shape as to present almost insuperable 

 difficulties to the compositor or proof-reader, who lacked the author's direction 

 and supervision. 



The publishers have had the good fortune to secure the services of Mr. J. A. 

 Farley, who has read the manuscript of the Systematic Synopsis, constituting 

 Part Three or the body of the work, with the most painstaking care. To the 

 scholarly zeal and conscientious spirit of fidelity and accuracy with which this 

 ornithologist has carried out the task he set himself of presenting the fifth 

 edition in exactly the form Dr. Coues would have wished, had he lived, the 

 publishers and their readers owe an imlimited debt of gratitude. The result, 

 though a posthuinous book, is one which Dr. Coues would un(|uestionably have 

 been proud to own as the crowning work of his life. As a scientific work, it 

 is without doubt authoritative and definitive. 



The science of ornithology has made vast strides since the publication of the 

 fourth edition of this work, and the present issue has outgrown the limits of a 

 single octavo volume. The following points briefly summarize the scope of the 

 additions and changes from former editions : 



1. Enlarged descriptions of species. 



2. Accounts much fuller than in former editions, of the breeding liabits of 

 birds, particularly the detailed description of eggs. 



