8 AVIFAUNA COLUMBIANA. 



they may be permitted to refer to that production with some little pride, 

 as to one which has stood the test of time better than boys' work gen- 

 erally does. The original " List" was necessarily brief, owing to the 

 fact that the limitations imposed by law upon the size of the volume in 

 which it was printed prevented any extended presentation of their ob- 

 servations. They had on hand, or in head, material which, had circum- 

 stances been entirely favorable, it would have been well to publish, but 

 which is little likely to be recovered now that time has softened the 

 outlines of original observations, and wrought what were fresh and 

 clean-cut then into the shadowy shapes of far-away pleasant perspective. 



In preparing the present article as one of a series in which, following 

 the lead of Prof. Lester F. Ward's admirable Flora, it is proposed to set 

 forth the Fauna of the District, the authors have in effect simply made 

 a second edition of their "List," as stated in the title. There has been 

 found little to correct, because the original "List" contained scarcely any- 

 thing erroneous; and not much to add, of the authors' own knowledge, 

 because they have paid little attention to the subject during the inter- 

 vening years. They have, however, entirely recast the article; em- 

 bodied the additions to the list made meanwhile by others ; extended 

 their remarks on the habits of birds in many cases; included a more elab- 

 orate notice of the Topography of the District with reference to the local 

 distribution of the birds; and added the Game Laws now in force in the 

 District. They have also noted, as far as their knowledge enabled them 

 to do so, the changes in the Avifauna resulting from the growth of a 

 great city. Twenty or twenty-five years ago, with a population of about 

 C0,000, the National Capital was a mud-puddle in winter, a dust-heap in 

 summer, a cow-pen and pig-sty all the year round ; there was good snipe- 

 shooting within the city limits, and the country all about was as primitive 

 as the most enthusiastic naturalist could desire. But with the assistance 

 of Mr. Alexander Shepherd, who ought to have a statue, we have changed 

 all that; Washington has grown up to 180,000, and become "citified" 

 into quite a respectable establishment; the suburban wilderness has been 

 reclaimed from Nature and largely given over to Art; while Ornithology 

 has long been more assiduously and successfully pursued within than 

 without the walls of the Smithsonian Institution. Besides all this, we 

 have the Sparrows now. 



The original "List" represented probably the first attempt at any 

 formal enumeration of the Birds of the District of Columbia — perhaps 

 the first local Fauna. At any rate, no earlier thing of the kind has come 

 to our knowledge. A little book entitled " Washington Described," 

 which had been published just previously by Philp & Solomons, con- 

 tained cursory notices of the natural history of the District, prepared 

 anonymously by several of the resident naturalists; and among these 

 was a slight sketch of the Ornithology by one of the present writers. 



Botany had been much more cultivated, by members of the old Bo- 

 tanical Club, which preceded the Potomac-side Naturalists' Club; the 



