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: 
PREFACE. 
have permitted me to quote from William S. Long’s 
School of the Woods. Also, from the books of Mr. 
Frank Chapman and Mr. W. E. D. Scott, as well as from 
the pamphlets of Mr. Ned Dearborn, and Mr. F. E. L, 
Beal, I have been glad to cull valuable opinions and 
certain ornithological statistics of indispensable interest, 
I have endeavored to paint the little songster in hig 
true colors, and show him in some one of his character- 
istic positions, flying or singing. Some of my water. 
colors are satisfactorily interpreted by the three-color 
process, and others are not. One must not judge of the 
color of the bird altogether by his picture. The wonder 
is, that with limited red, yellow, and blue the plate- 
maker and printer so nearly approached the model. 
The pictures of the four Thrushes are well preserved, so 
are those of the Meadowlark, the Cuckoos, the Purple 
Finch, the Goldfinch, the Indigo Bunting, and the Red- 
winged Blackbird. Suffice it to say that when the art- 
ist gives the printer absolutely nothing but purity and 
delicacy of color to copy, he imposes upon him a task of 
no little difficulty,—a difficulty for which due allow- 
ance should be made in an appreciation of the result. 
I do not use such color-terms as rufous, vinaceous, 
fuscous, and the like, when describing the bird’s colors, 
as it is doubtful whether anybody knows what they 
mean. Imagine yourself telling the painter to paint 
your house fuscous, or directing the dress-maker to line 
your garment with vinaceous! Presumably the orni- 
thologist and the botanist prefer to use a universal 
language; it has its advantages, so we will forgive them. 
Yet it would hit a scientist very hard, I suppose, to sug- 
gest that he was very unscientific outside of his pro- 
fession—and a trifle medieval! Otherwise, why does he 
call crimson, purple! In the matter of color and music, 
therefore, we will be scientific, and when the bird is 
crimson we will nof call him purple, but crimson, and 
when he sings G sharp we will not hunt around ior a 
syllable to represent it, but put it on the musical staff 
where it belongs! 
F, SCHUYLER MATHEWS. 
Boston. 
xi 
