PREFACE. V 



laborious undertaking, had I not been able to obtain the 

 assistance of Mr, Louis Fraser, by whom the greater portion 

 of my synonyms have been written out and re-arranged. In 

 compiling the latter also, I must not forget to acknowledge 

 the assistance I have received from Dr. Cabanis' * Museum 

 Heineanum/ particularly from the two latter parts of that 

 work, in the preparation of which Dr. Cabanis was assisted 

 by Herr F. Heine, Junior. The late Prince Bonaparte's ' Con- 

 spectus' (which, with all its defects, I consider to be the most 

 useful and handy summary of ornithological knowledge avail- 

 able to the student) has also been constantly made use of. 



My collection at the present moment consists of about 

 4100 specimens, representing 2170 species of American birds 

 of the Orders Passeres, Fissirostres, and Scansores. Of these 

 386 are type-specimens, being those from which the original 

 descriptions of the species have been taken. It may be men- 

 tioned, in order to show in how little space a tolerably large 

 series of bird-skins may be contained, that these specimens 

 are all arranged with the greatest ease in ten small cabinets 

 measuring about 2 feet 1 inch by 1 foot 6 inches, and 3 feet in 

 height, fitted with drawers made of pasteboard. Every specimen 

 is ticketed and numbered to correspond with this Catalogue, and 

 each drawer bears a printed label outside with the name of the 

 family in large letters. Any skin required may, therefore, be 

 readily found, even by a person not acquainted with birds^ in 

 a few seconds. 



In conclusion, I may add that, in selecting specimens for this 

 collection, one of my great objects has been to illustrate the 

 geographical distributi6n of the species, — this branch of Zoology 

 (the theory of distribution), bearing as it does so remarkably on 



