ILLUSTRATOR'S NOTE 



In illustrating a work of the importance and scope of the present one 

 it has been necessary to draw upon larger material than was available in 

 my own cabinets, so recourse was had to the more complete collections 

 of others. The majority of the land birds and smaller water birds have 

 been drawn from specimens of my own collecting, while most of the larger 

 species were kindly loaned by different institutions; the New York State 

 Museum at Albany, the American Museum of Natural History in New 

 York, and the Department of Zoology of Cornell University. 



The living appearance of a bird is seldom well expressed by a dried 

 skin, however perfect it may be, and in many instances a specimen gives 

 no hint of the grace and beauty furnished in life by the bright colors of the 

 perishable parts : the eyes, the soft skin of bill and feet of many water birds, 

 and, in rare cases, the living feathers themselves. For there are some 

 birds, notably the group of Black-headed gulls, some terns, and the larger 

 mergansers, whose white plumage is suffused at certain seasons with a 

 most beautiful tinge of shell-pink or rosy cream-color which is evanescent, 

 and soon fades from the most carefully prepared and cherished skin. The 

 rich colors often found in the bill, legs and feet also change with the pro- 

 cess of drying, and it is a cause of surprise and regret to students to find 

 how meager is the literature bearing upon this important item of bird 

 coloration. It is almost impossible to find concise descriptions of even 

 the more striking of these transitory beauties, while those less brilliant 

 but not less beautiful and interesting are generally allowed to pass entirely 

 undescribed. Thus it early became apparent to me that if such data 

 were to be recorded it must be done from actual specimens, painted, in 

 short, from living or fresh taken birds, before the settling of the body fluids 

 or the disintegration or absorption of pigments could take place. This, 

 it may be said, is frequently a matter of only an instant, and in most cases, 

 also, the high color is only attained in adult birds and at the approach of 

 the breeding season. 



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