PREFACE. 
No group of animals is more important to man than 
the one comprising the gallinaceous birds—the source 
from which has been derived the countless varieties of 
domesticated fowl distributed throughout the world. 
As articles of food they are of inestimable value, and 
the birds enter largely into the various accounts of trade. 
But beside the commercial aspect, which is important 
enough, the species present other attractions that appeal 
most strongly to those for whom this book was espe- 
cially written, the sportsmen—viz., the pleasure they 
yield in the chase, and the incentive they provide for 
action and effort, when, in the leafy aisles of the whisper- 
ing forests, or in the thickets, and along the banks of the 
leaping stream, or on the open sky-encircled prairie, 
man in his quest for these game-like creatures, aided by 
his faithful dog, finds renewed health and strength to 
wrestle with the toils and troubles of his daily life. For 
accomplishing this result alone, even if in all their life 
and death they yielded no other, these birds were not 
created in vain. 
The favorable reception given to my book on the 
“Shore Birds’ has encouraged me to write the life his- 
tories (as my opportunities have enabled me to become 
familiar with them) of possibly the most attractive feath- 
ered creatures, certainly so from the sportsman’s point of 
view, which our country possesses. The water fowl to 
some may appear more desirable, a few are really game, 
and I would be the last to speak or write disparagingly 
Vv 
