PREFACE. 



The fifth volume of The Osprfy hrs been finished, and with it a well rounded period of five 

 years — a lustrum — has been completed. Maturity has been attained, and the desire to throw off 

 the old plumage and to take on a new one, which has been felt for a long time, may now be fitly 

 realized. A moult is seasonable. With the present volume a first series of the magazine is 

 brought to an end. A new one will follow. 



The interest in the Journal was purchased by one of the managing editors at the instance of 

 the late Doctor Coues after the first number of a third volume had been already^ issued. Various 

 causes later entailed upon the purchaser the necessity of either abandoning it or continuing it under 

 other auspices. The latter seemed to him to be the lesser of two evils, and he was fain to edit it 

 himself with the assistance of the ablest of the ornithologists resident at Washington. Under 

 such conditions the last two of the volumes have been published. 



The style and typography adopted by the original editor was continued, but with some essen- 

 tial modifications, by Doctor Coues. Those modifications were introduced into the second number 

 of the third volume. 



A dislike to depart abruptly from a standard once adopted, influenced the succeeding editors 

 in preserving, for the time being, the system as left by Doctor Coues. They were determined, 

 however, at the end of a definite period, to assume a new dress and apply new methods. The time 

 has now come. 



The new series will be entitled as the old, but numbered as "second series, volume one" and 

 so on; the numeration will be also continued from the first, however, and volume one will thus be 

 "volume six of the complete series", etc. The text will be in large type (Small Pica or 11-point 

 instead of Brevier or 10-point) and the numbers will consist of 24 in place of 16 pages, or the 

 equivalents as plates, two pages being represented by one plate. The proportion of body and 

 supplement will vary; sometimes 4 or 8 pages of the latter will be given with 16 or 20 pages of the 

 former, and sometimes these proportions will be reversed. 



The "Life and Times of William Swainson" is concluded in this volume. Originally it was 

 intended to be completed in four numbers of The Osprey, but friends, in whose judgment the 

 author and editors feel confidence, expressed approbation of the mode of treatment and urged 

 that the life be made the medium of much interesting and important information respecting the 

 conditions of science and "philosophy" in the time covered. The biography consequently was 

 extended and has become, to some extent, the history of a peculiar and interesting stage of science 

 prevalent in the third and forth decades of the past century. For a time, the ideas charac- 

 teristic of that stage were dominant, and those who shared them looked down with scorn upon 

 the humbler students who were content to deal with facts and with contempt upon poor anatomists, 

 who were scarcely deemed entitled to be called zoologists! It is interesting to turn back and view, 

 through the long vista of past years, the contrast between the approved ornithology of that time 

 and the work done then and before that time by ornithotomists. The latter were not recognized 

 as true ornithologists and were completelj' ignored by those who usurped the right to be exclu- 

 sively so called. But those ornithotomists were laying the foundation stones of what is now 

 recognized as the science of ornithology and the philosophy then regnant has long since been 

 discarded. 



For over two years, the editors have had in hand engraved portraits of a number of naturalists 

 prominent in American ornithology as well as sketches of their lives. It was deemed inadvisable, 

 however, to give undue prominence to biography and consequently that material has been held 

 back until the Life of Swainson was finished. The time has now come to utilize the matter and 

 the first of the lot will be published in the initial number of the new series of The Osprey. 



It was, for a long time, hoped that a serial work on American Birds could be issued as a sup- 

 plement to The Osprey, but the attempts to organize the force to undertake such a work on a 

 uniform plan were unsuccessful. For the present, therefore, the editors are compelled to suspend 

 the attempt. Meanwhile they will issue, as a supplement, signatures of a new work on general 



