EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



The death of Professor Bert Heald Bailey, M. S., M. D., head of 

 the Department of Zoology and Curator of the Museum in Coe Col- 

 lege, occurred on June 22, 1917, just a few days after the com- 

 mencement at which he was to have received the degree of Doctor of 

 Philosophy from the State University of Iowa. During the year 

 1916-17 Dr. Bailey held the senior fellowship at the University and 

 was availing himself of a year's leave of absence from Coe College 

 in order that he might finish as a thesis this work on the Raptorial 

 Birds of Iowa, a subject which had specially interested him since 

 boyhood. At the same time he had in preparation a similar work 

 on the Mammals of Iowa. About the first of April his work was 

 interrupted by a sudden and mysterious illness which necessitated 

 his return to his home in Cedar Rapids and which terminated fatally 

 eleven weeks later. 



A short time before his death Dr. Bailey asked the writer, who 

 was that year acting as his substitute in Coe College, to go to Iowa 

 City and bring back his papers for safe keeping and at that time 

 the promise was made to help him get out this book as soon as he 

 might be able to work upon it. 



Doctor Bailey felt that he needed but a few weeks more of un- 

 interrupted time to finish the book. In his hands the different parts 

 of the manuscript would have slipped into their related places as by 

 magic. However, for another person taking up the work there was 

 a greater task involved. Carefully examining every rcrap of paper, 

 fearful lest something should be lost, the editor h?.3 cf':en been 

 obliged to decide what was to have been included and what was 

 to have been discarded. The introduction, though obviously still in 

 rather rough form, has not been changed, but a few minor parts 

 such as the glossary and the keys to Hawks remained to be writ- 

 ten. Some photographs were yet to be made from specimens in 

 the Coe College Museum, and a considerable part of the manu- 

 script was waiting for final copying and arranging. These things 

 are mentioned, not with the desire to take any of the credit for 

 Dr. Bailey's work, but rather that omissions or errors may not be 

 laid to his account. Careful and accurate as he was he would have 



