In 1839 appeared Rev. W. B. O. Peabody's "Report 

 on the Ornithology of Massachusetts" (Rep. on Fishes, 

 Reptiles and Birds of Mass., pp. 259-404),. in which 

 were enumerated two hundred and eighty-four species as 

 occurring or probably occurring in the state. Of these, 

 twenty prove to have been wrongty included (more than 

 this number were given inferentially), and thirteen others 

 are synonyms, leaving only two hundred and fifty-one 

 valid and properly included species. 



The next enumeration is that of Mr. F. W. Putnam's 

 "Catalogue of the Birds of Essex County" (Proc. Essex 

 Institute, I, pp. 201-231), published in 1856, in which 

 two hundred and forty-five species are given as found in 

 Essex County, while the Appendix adds forty-eight others 

 as found in the state, making two hundred and ninety- 

 three in all. The Essex County list includes but a single 

 nominal species and only four that have not been con- 

 firmed by subsequent capture, or that can be considered 

 as in the least degree open to doubt, while only two can 

 be regarded as beyond question erroneously included. 

 The supplemental list is compiled mainly from Peabody, 

 Nuttall, and Audubon, and contains a dozen or more spe- 

 cies that are either merely nominal, or that still lack con- 

 firmation as birds of Massachusetts, leaving about two 

 hundred and seventy-five as the number of satisfactorily 

 authenticated species. 



In 1864 Mr. E. A. Samuels published his "Descriptive 

 Catalogue of the Birds of Massachusetts" (Agric. of Mass., 

 Sec'y's Rep. for 1863, App., pp. xvii-xxix), numbering 

 two hundred and sixty-nine species. Of these, three are 

 now regarded as nominal, and five or six others have not 

 been confirmed as occurring in the state, although given 

 by Peabody and some other previous authors. Deducting 

 these leaves about two hundred and sixty, or eighteen less 



