VI 11 PREFACE. 



or open prairie, and that the student, desirous of learning 

 the ways of hfe and variations in dress of one of the most 

 gallant and attractive groups of birds living to-day, may 

 find some profit and instruction in a perusal of its pages. 

 My thanks are due to my friends Professor Allen and 

 Mr. Chapman of the New York Museum of Natural 

 History, to Mr. R. Ridgway of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, and to Mr. Whitmer Stone of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, for the loan of speci- 

 mens of the various species from which the illustrations 

 in this volume have been made. 



