148 PREFACE TO VOLS. II. AND III. 



are to be especially treated of, we shall content ourselves with stating, 

 that out of Latham's four hundred and sixty-four species, two hundred 

 and sixty-nine are land birds. Of these, one hundred and fifty at 

 most are admitted by us, and though it would not be difficult to prove 

 nominal about sixty, there will still remain about sixty others, whose 

 habitat is false, or which are not sufficiently investigated. Such is the 

 state of things to which we call the attention of ornithologists. 



However this may be, Wilson only described two hundred and seventy 

 species, of which one hundred and seventy-nine were land birds. Six- 

 teen more are added in the first volume of this work. The second and 

 third will contain an additional sixteen, after which there yet remain 

 five others whose existence we have ascertained, making a total of two 

 hundred and sixteen.* 



The large size and importance of some of the birds given in the two 

 present volumes, among which are three Hawks and four Grouse, have 

 obliged us to distribute the sixteen new species that they contain, 

 together with nine others, of which two only are reduced, upon twelve 

 plates. It therefore rested with our publishers to issue one large, or 

 two smaller volumes, and the latter course is that which they have 

 thought proper to adopt. 



* These may all be found in our Synopsis of the Birds of the United States, and 

 Appendix, published in the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, 

 Vol. II. 



