PREFACE 



In contemplation of this list I have spared no pains in gathering 

 material from all available sources, which I have boiled down and 

 condensed, and am glad to present it in as coutplete form as is pos- 

 sible at this date. 



Historical. — Catesby's work, in 1670, was the first to appear on 

 the birds of this State, but this work included a great deal more 

 territory than North Carolina, and did not embrace one-half of the 

 birds now known to occur within our borders. Then followed the 

 publication of several minor papers, at irregular intervals, devoted 

 principally to the ornithology of the various sections, when, in 1887, 

 Prof. G. F. Atkinson, of the University of North Carolina, pub- 

 lished a list of all the birds then known to him to occur within the 

 bounds of the State. Incomplete though this list was, it has served 

 a good purpose — rthat of a stimulus ; and since that time much 

 work has been done by a few zealous workers. Many new species 

 have been added, and new and more complete notes taken on nearly 

 all the species recorded by him ; their general distribution and 

 nesting habits have been more fully studied and carefully observed ; 

 the result of which is given forth in this list. It is an entirely new 

 list, so far as the annotations are concerned, in nearly every respect. 



Geographical and Physical Characteristics of the 

 State. — North Carolina is peculiarly situated, geographically, and 

 divided, physically ; so that it presents a variety of climate, and 

 consequently a varied bird-life, which is exceedingly interesting. 

 Midway, as it were, between the North and South, and reaching 

 from the Atlantic ocean westward five hundred miles to the heights 

 of the Alleghanies, we are visited by nearly all the migrants of 

 eastern North America. Physically, it is divided into three dis- 

 tinct regions, viz., the eastern or tide-water, which can roughly be 

 said to include all the land east of a line which indicates an alti- 

 tude of one hundred feet above the sea-level ; the middle or pied- 

 mont, which is bounded by the above-described line on the east, 

 and a similar one on the west, indicating the altitude of five hun- 

 dred feet ; and the western or mountain section, which includes all 

 the territory west of the piedmont section, embracing all the moun- 

 tains of the State to the eastern boundary of Tennessee. From the 

 sea-level in the east the altitude gradually increases till a height of 

 more than six thousand feet is reached in the west. These varia- 



