10 BIRDS OF THE NEW YORK CITY REGION 



region is far from complete. Too many local avifaunas con- 

 tain no hint of this fact, and are written as if the last word on 

 the subject had been pronounced. I have tried in every case 

 to indicate where our knowledge is defective, and to point 

 out many opportunities for the student to add to it. 



It is a pleasure to acknowledge the assistance which the 

 writer has received in every direction. All but one of the 

 active members of the Linnsean Society have placed their 

 experience and observation unreservedly at his disposal. 

 Their names will appear frequently in the following pages, 

 and every record given is properly accredited. The members 

 of the Local Avifauna Committee have, of course, rendered 

 additional and invaluable services, which will be mentioned 

 more fully in the proper places beyond. The writer must, 

 however, go further and state that such local knowledge as he 

 possesses is in large measure due to the Linnsean Society and 

 its members. The meetings have stimulated him since boy- 

 hood; there he has gained new information, new ideas, and a 

 broader viewpoint. How can one overevaluate the priceless 

 companionship of years afield with one's fellow-members, 

 the sympathy, the bond of a great interest shared in common. 

 Every wood and field, every marsh and beach near New York 

 City, is laden with memories of most of them ; few discoveries, 

 few sights of rarities, but were shared with one or more of 

 them; we have been hot, cold, hungry or wet together; we 

 have been storm-bound on islands, bogged in swamps, carried 

 out to sea in rowboats together. Above all I must thank Mr. 

 J. T. Nichols, who knows more about Long Island birds than 

 anyone living, who magnanimously surrendered his plans for 

 publication, for the sake of a work of larger scope, and who 

 has done all he could to make this work a success. To him I 

 have turned for advice and counsel on numerous prob- 

 lems of every kind, and never in vain. I have frequently 

 deferred to his opinion. He has read and corrected the entire 

 manuscript. 



