INTRODUCTION. 



With the January number of Birds, we enter upon a new year with the 

 satisfaction of having pleased our readers, as well as rendered an actual service 

 to the cause of education, ornithological literature, and art. Among the 

 hundreds of testimonials from competent judges, (many of them scientists), 

 which we have received, we will permit ourselves the use of one only, as 

 exemplifying the excellence which we have sought to attain and the rightful 

 claim which we may make for the future. The writer says : "I find Birds 

 an everlasting source of pleasure to the children, not less than to myself. I 

 have one of the few almost absolutely fresh copies of 'Audubon's Birds,' for 

 which I have refused $3,000, besides later works, and I will say that the 

 pictures of birds given in your magazine are infinitely more true to life, and 

 more pleasing, everyway, than any of those presented in either work. The 

 other day I compared some of your pictures with the birds mounted by myself, 

 notably a Wood-duck and a Wood-cock, and every marking co-incided. The 

 photographs might have been taken from my own specimens, so accurately 

 were they delineated, attesting the truth of your work." 



Some of our subscribers, unaware of the prodigality with which nature has 

 scattered birds throughout the world, have asked whether the supply of 

 specimens may not soon be exhausted. Our answer is, that there are many 

 thousands of rare and attractive birds, all of them interesting for study, from 

 which, for years to come, we might select many of the lovliest forms and 

 richest plumage. Of North American birds alone there are more than twelve 

 hundred species. 



The success of Birds is due to its superior color illustrations and the 

 unique treatment of the text. Popular and yet -scientific, it is interesting to 

 old and young alike. 



The classification and nomenclature followed are those adopted by the 

 American Ornithological Union in 1895. 



Nature Study Publishing Company. 



