XIV. 
to Ohio species. Where specimens or data were lacking, | have been under 
obligation to Ridgway’s Manual', Coues’ Key’, Chapman’s Handbook*, and 
other treatises. 
The scope of this book, it is almost needless to say, is strictly Ohioan. 
The birds as described are as any one in Ohio might see them. Something 
may, indeed, be said from time to time as to the bird’s behavior in its distant 
summer or winter home, but our interest centers upon the bird as it appears 
in this state. The proportionate treatment, therefore, which each one re- 
ceives, is prescribed by its relative familiarity or importance within our limits, 
Common birds are not dismissed with a word because they are common, nor 
rare ones dilated upon at great length because they are rare, but the effort 
has been rather to give each bird the place which it actually holds in the 
average scheme of interest. 
The order of treatment is substantially the opposite of the one now 
followed by the American Ornithologists’ Union, and is justifiable princi- 
pally on the ground that it follows a certain order of interest and convenience. 
3eginning, as it does, with the supposedly highest forms of bird-life, it brings 
to the fore the most familiar birds, and avoids that rude juxtaposition of 
the lowest form of one group and the highest of the one above it, which is 
the confessed weakness of the A. O. U. code. 
The summaries under the caption “General Range” are chiefly those 
furnished by the Second Edition of the A. O. U. Check-list, modified by such 
more recent information as has come to hand. 
While the author’s point of view has been that of a bird-lover, some 
things here recorded may seem inconsistent with the claim of that title. The 
fact is that none of us are quite consistent in our attitude toward the bird- 
world. ‘The interests of sport and the interests of science must sometimes 
come into conflict with those of sentiment; and if one confesses allegiance 
to all three at once he will inevitably appear to the partisans of either in a 
bad light. However, a real principal of unity is found when we come to 
regard the bird’s value to society. The question then becomes, not, Is this 
bird worth more to me in my collection or upon my plate than as a living 
actor in the drama of life? but, In what capacity can this bird best serve the 
interests of mankind? ‘There can be no doubt that the answer to the latter 
question is usually and increasingly, As a living bird. We have stuffed speci- 
mens enough, nearly; only a limited few of us are fitted to enjoy the pleasures 
of the chase, and the objects of our passion are about gone anyway; but 
never while the hearts of men are set on peace, and the minds of men are 
alert to receive the impression of the Infinite, will there be too many birds 
to speak to eye and ear, and to minister to the hidden things of the spirit. 
4 A Manual of North American Birds, by Robert Ridgway. Fourth Edition. Philadelphia: J. B. 
Bee Rete Nay tae tn Birds, by Elliott Coues, A.M., M.D., Ph.D, Fourth Edition. Boston: Estes 
and Lauriat. 
8 Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America, by Frank M. Chapman, Sixth Edition. New York: 
1). Appleton and Company. 
