PREFACE 



Seventeen years have passed since the appearance of Dr. 

 Chapman's pamphlet on "The Birds of the Vicinity of New 

 York City." This publication briefly summarized the 

 information about our local birds available at that time, 

 and was a veritable mine of inspiration and assistance to the 

 modern generation of field ornithologists and amateur bird 

 students, who were then just beginning work. 



It is difficult to conceive the change that has taken place 

 in these seventeen years. For one person interested in birds 

 then there are now hundreds, who cover almost every section 

 of the area at every season of the year. When Dr. Chapman 

 wrote, not only were many parts of his territory without a 

 resident student, but many sections had never even been 

 visited by anyone interested in birds, or had remained un- 

 visited for many years. Twenty-five years ago an active 

 field man went out collecting a few dozen times a year, or 

 made two or three trips lasting a week or so apiece. Now- 

 adays an active student will often be afield a hundred times 

 in one year. The result is an enormous mass of data and notes 

 of all kinds, which, when digested and arranged, greatly 

 extend the knowledge of our birds, and modify many old 

 conceptions of their status and distribution. 



The Linnaan Society of New York, throughout this 

 period, has been the main center and nucleus for this growth 

 of ornithological interest. At its meeting of October 14, 1919, 

 Dr. Chapman moved that a committee be appointed to 

 prepare as complete and detailed a Local Avifauna as 

 present knowledge permitted. This committee, appointed 

 somewhat later, consisted of Mr. J. T. Nichols as chairman, 

 Dr. E. R. P. Janvrin, and the writer. Late in December, 

 1921, Dr. F. A. Lucas, director of the American Museum, who 

 had long realized the need of a new guide of some sort to the 

 local birds, instructed me to prepare a handbook as soon as 



