PREFACE, 



Since the publication of tlie list in Jefl^erson's Notes, no catalogue, 

 purporting to treat of the birds of Virginia as a vvliole, has, I be- 

 lieve, appeared. The one here presented is based upon personal ob- 

 servation in different localities, especially in Albemarle Count}', and 

 upon the various papers already published, together with several 

 other sources of information of which I have been able to avail 

 myself. As the fauna of West Virginia does not differ very mark- 

 edly from that of its sister state, and as the separation between the 

 two has been of such recent origin and was made chiefly for 

 political rather than topograpliical considerations, I have included 

 in the catalogue the birds to l)e found in both ; the notes 

 upon the water birds, however, princip;dh' relate to eastern Vir- 

 ginia, our knowledge of the West Virginia species being to a con- 

 siderable extent a matter of inference. 



I would here express my obligations to those gentlemen who 

 have been kind enough to favor me with their aid, of whom I 

 woukl mention especially Dr. C Hart Merriam and Dr. A. K. 

 Fisher of the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy, 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, who besides 

 assisting me in many ways have kindly allowed me to examine 

 the local reports on ornithology rcturnetl 'oy vaiious observers in 

 Virginia and West Virginia in answer to the circulars issued by the 

 Department and by the Committee on Migration ol the American 

 Ornithologists' Union. I have also received most valuable in- 

 formation with regard to the l)irds of the Eastern .Sliore from Cap- 

 tain Charles H. Crumb of the U. S. Life Saving Station at Cobb's 

 Island, an excellent ornithologist, who has devoted much atten- 

 tion to the subject, and am indebted for other important assistance 



