PREFACE. 3 
on habits, nests and eggs, abundance, etc. and in very many cases 
manuscript notes by Bourns and Worcester, giving information on habits, 
colors of -soft parts, measurements, and validity of species. 
All measurements are in the metric system. In copied descriptions 
inches and hundredths have been carefully reduced to millimeters and 
the English measurements omitted, tenths and hundredths of millimeters 
being disregarded in most instances. 
In accordance with Canon XXXVII of the Code of Nomenclature 
adopted by the American Ornithologists’ Union, Revised Edition (1908), 
generic and specific names, unless evidently misprinted, are spelled as in 
the original descriptions. Dr. Charles W. Richmond, Assistant Curator, 
Division of Birds, United States National Museum, has most kindly 
verified a very large number of these citations. 
The last half century has been exceedingly fruitful in systems of clas- 
sification, some of them excellent, most of them suggestive and helpful. 
The whole subject has been reviewed in a masterly way by Newton, Dic- 
tionary of Birds, London (1896), 45-120 of introduction. 
The present author has not the ability to judge of the relative merits 
of the schemes of classification proposed by various authors but the 
system set forth in Sharpe’s Hand-List * and copied in McGregor and 
Worcester’s Hand-List of Philippine Birds is followed as being both 
convenient and well known. 
* SHarpp, R. B.: A Hand-List of the Genera and Species of Birds. London 
(1899-1903), 1-4, Vol. 5 in press. 
For other systems of classification the following may be consulted: 
Huxtey, T. H.: On the Classification of Birds; and on the Taxonomic Value of 
the Modifications of Certain of the Cranial Bones observable in that Class. 
Proc. Zool, Soc. London (1867), 415-472. 
STEJNEGER, L.: Standard Natural History. Boston (1885), 4, Birds (part). An 
outline of Stejneger’s scheme of classification may be found in the Zoological 
Record (1885), 22, pt. Aves. 14-18. 
Furprinerr, M.: Untersuchungen zur Morphologie und Systematik der Vogel, 
Zugleich ein Beitrage zur Anatomie der Stiitz- und Bewegungsorgane. Royal 
Zoological Society, Amsterdam (1888). For reviews of Fiirbringer’s classifica- 
tion see Gadow, Natwre (1888), 39, 150-152; 177-181, and Evans, Zool. 
Record, Aves (1888), 25, 14-16. 
Evans, A. H.: Cambridge Natural History, Birds. New York and London 
(1900), 9, xt—xvr (Scheme of Classification). 
Gapow, H.: On the Classification of Birds. Proc. Zool. Soc. London (1892), 
229-256. 
Dusois, A.: Synopsis Avium. Brussels (1899-1904), 1-1339, pls. 1-16. 
Ripeway, R.: The Birds of North and Middle America. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. 
Washington (1901), No. 50, pt. 1, 1-12. 
CLaRgK, H. L.: The Classification of Birds. Awk (1901), new ser., 18, 370-381. 
SHUFELDT R. W.: An Arrangement of the Families and Higher Groups of Birds. 
Am. Naturalist (1904), 38, 833-857. 
