4 
the interest in birds and love for them, in the state, and so advancing the 
cause of bird protection. It is not expected, however, that it will be suf- 
ficient for the student of ornithology, who should possess beside some good 
manual with full descriptions and figures of our birds, suchas Apgar’s Birds 
of the Eastern United States, Chapman & Reed’s Color Key to North 
American Birds, or if he can afford a more expensive work, either Ridgway’s 
Manual or Coues’ Key. Some day this preliminary review may be ex- 
panded into a complete, illustrated work on Nebraska birds, but it remains 
for the generosity of the state legislature or of some state society, interested 
in their preservation, to say when that shall be. 
The numbers preceding each species are those of the auaeigen Ornithol- 
ogists’ Union check list, and in regard to nomenclature the same list has 
been followed implicitly; the possessive has however been omitted from the 
common names, 
_ The authors desire to acknowledge the assistance received, in the way of 
data, from various members of the Union and local bird club, whose names 
appear in connection with the records under different species, and also to 
recognize their indebtedness to Apgar’s Birds of the Eastern United States, 
the keys in which have formed the basis for some of the synopses here used. 
The thanks of the authors are also here extended to those of our ornitholog- 
ical authorities who have generously determined specimens sent to them—- 
Messrs. H. C. Oberholser of the U. S. Biological Survey and Witmer Stone 
of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. 
In the working over of records and material and in the comparison of 
authorities all the authors have participated, but a large part of the clerical 
work and of the preparation of the synopses has been done by Mr. Swenk. 
