Tuts book has been written from a desire to interest, if not 
to instruct, young people in that most attractive branch of 
Natural History, the study of birds. If this purpose is ac- 
complished, I trust that its deficiencies may be pardoned. In 
my early study of ornithology, I felt great need of some similar 
book; hence my attempt to supply it. I have made several 
quotations in my own name from occasional notes which I have 
already given to the public. This is in accordance with my 
original expectation of publishing the following pages anony- 
mously—a course, however, which has been thought inad- 
visable. 
H. D. Minor. 
Noy. 1st, 1876. 
