PREFACE TO THE EDITION IN COLORS. 



Without question, the simplest and most certain way 

 in which to learn to know our birds is by examination 

 of the birds themselves. Not every one, however, has 

 access to an ornithological collection, and failing this, the 

 best substitute for the bird is a colored plate which will 

 accurately represent every shade and tint of its plumage. 

 The widespread demand for a work containing illustra- 

 tions of this nature is undoubted, but publishers have pre- 

 viously hesitated to expend the large sum necessary to 

 produce satisfactorily colored plates, or have employed 

 the cheap color processes with results far from successful. 



The high praise which has been accorded the illustra- 

 tions in the uncolored edition of Bird-Life is an assur- 

 ance that bird lovers will therefore doubly welcome a 

 work in which our birds are truthfully portrayed, not 

 only in natural attitudes, but in natural colors as well. 

 Photographic bromide copies of the original drawings for 

 Bird-Life have been carefully colored by an expert col- 

 orist under the author's supervision, and are here repro- 

 duced by a lithographic process which insures absolute 

 accuracy. 



F. M. C. 

 American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York city, October 1. 1897. 



