viii PREFACE. 



have had another motive in the preparation of this 

 work besides that of preserving Nuttall's biographies. 

 Some time ago I made a promise to several Canadian 

 friends to prepare a book treating of Canadian birds 

 that would be scientifically correct and at the same time 

 " popular" in its style. So while writing these pages 

 I have kept Canadian readers constantly in mind, and 

 have given here an account of every species that has 

 been found within the Dominion east of the Manitoba 

 plains, together with their Canadian distribution. 



The limits of a " hand-book " demanding the most 

 rigid economy of space, when treating of so extensive 

 a subject I have been compelled to omit those species 

 which occur only to the westward of the Mississippi 

 valley, though I have endeavored to make mention of 

 every bird that has occurred within this Eastern Faunal 

 Province, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, 

 and to give their distribution and breeding area so far 

 as these are known. Nuttall knew very little about 

 the Western birds, and therefore only a few short 

 chapters of his have been lost through restricting the 

 scope of the present work to Eastern forms. 



The nomenclature adopted is that of the " Check- 

 List" issued by the American Ornithologists' Union. 

 The sequence of species is that arranged by Nuttall, 

 with some few trifling alterations ; and being radically 

 different from that of recent authors, the student must 

 be referred to other works for guidance in classification 

 as well as for diagnoses of the higher groups, Coues' 

 " Key to North American Birds" is a useful work, and 

 contains matter not obtainable elsewhere, though the 



