PREFACE. 



The basis of the present volume is the 

 Directory published in 1907, but to this has 

 been added a Key to the Wood Cuts and an 

 Appendix in which are given recently de- 

 scribed birds and those omitted before for one 

 reason or another. Thus this book stands 

 squarely abreast of the present time. 



Although a Key to the Cuts has been 

 added, I trust that this will be used only as 

 a confirmation of the reader's identification 

 of the cuts by study of the different orders, 

 families, and genera, as advised in the Intro- 

 duction. The true way to know birds is to 

 learn in the beginning the relationship of 

 each and its place in the great natural sys- 

 tem, and with a little patient study this 

 knowledge is very easily acquired. We may 

 liken an order to a state, a family to a city 

 in it, a genus to a city street upon which the 

 numbered species live, and thus the reason 

 for applying the name Directory to this 

 book becomes apparent. 



May, 1912. 



